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Vardy: Playing in Italy ‘was a struggle, moving abroad is really, really tough’

Jamie Vardy is back in the UK after spending the 2025-26 season with Cremonese, has made it clear that he does not intend to return to Italy, and says that moving to Serie A was a ‘struggle, moving abroad with a family is really, really tough’.

Vardy joined Cremonese on a free transfer last summer after calling it a day on a 13-year stint with his beloved Leicester City.

He would go on to score seven goals and provide three assists from 29 appearances in Serie A in 2025-26, but this was not enough to avoid relegation to Serie B, as Cremonese finished the season in 18th place on 343 points from 38 matches.

Recent reports indicated that Vardy would not stay on with Cremonese for their Serie B campaign in 2025-26, and speaking on his newly-launched ‘Jamie Vardy’s Having a Party’ podcast, the Englishman did not paint a pretty picture of his time living in Italy.

Vardy criticises training and sporting directors in Italy: ‘You go into a game and you’re f***ed’

Vardy spoke about the struggle he felt moving his family abroad. He has four children and two step-children, said that he felt ‘guilty’ about moving his children out of their schools and away from home, and revealed that he had already moved his family back to the UK before the end of his Cremonese stint.

Asked whether it was good to be back on home soil, Vardy said: “Very nice. We’d already moved the kids back, it was a struggle, really was.”

The issues that Vardy had in Italy were not just with his family, though. Vardy was highly critical of the way that teams in Italy train and the influence that sporting directors have over the clubs.

CREMONA, ITALY – MAY 10: Jamie Vardy of US Cremonese celebrates after scoring the 1-0 goal during the Serie A match between US Cremonese and Pisa SC at Stadio Giovanni Zini on May 10, 2026 in Cremona, Italy. (Photo by Marco M. Mantovani/Getty Images)

“Compared to here (England), it’s a lot slower, more defensive,” Vardy said when analysing the style of play in Serie A.

“Training was just constant: Run, run, run, run. You go into a game and you’re f***ed. Like literally, you have nothing else left to give. It’s not just for me, it’s every team.

“So how it works is that the sporting director has a say in everything. Everything. It’s mental.

“I remember, I have to laugh about it, we played Bologna away. So that week, for Bologna, we did what we’d normally do in the UK, we had a day off after the game. We went into that game fresh as hell. Away from home, win 3-1. Everyone’s buzzing.

BOLOGNA, ITALY – DECEMBER 01: Jamie Vardy of Cremonese scores his team’s third goal during the Serie A match between Bologna FC 1909 and US Cremonese at Renato Dall’Ara Stadium on December 01, 2025 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)

“So in my head, I’m like ‘well, just keep it now, do exactly the same’. Then we were playing Pisa the week after. The sporting director says ‘it’s a massive game, massive game’. I’m like ‘well, they’re all massive, no game’s any different’. ‘No, no, but this one’s big‘.

“They trained us every single day, played Pisa, lost.”

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