Advertisement
Jamie Vardy made his England debut against Ireland.

'Ireland enquired about Jamie Vardy's eligibility' - Guppy

Martin O’Neill was keen to find out whether the prolific Foxes attacker had any Irish heritage.

THE REPUBLIC OF Ireland made enquiries to check if Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy was eligible to play for the Boys in Green, according to Steve Guppy.

Vardy has been a key component in Leicester’s remarkable Premier League success this season, scoring 22 goals in 34 league games, and former Foxes midfielder Guppy revealed that Martin O’Neill had instructed him to investigate the striker’s heritage when he joined Ireland’s coaching staff in 2014.

Unfortunately for O’Neill and Ireland though, Guppy’s enquiries yielded negative results.

“One of the first things Martin O’Neill got me to do when I got the job was to find out if Vardy was Irish or not and sadly his grandparents were not,” Guppy said, speaking on Newstalk’s Off The Ball.

The Leicester forward eventually went on to play for England and he made his debut for the Three Lions in June 2015 against O’Neill’s Ireland.

The 29-year-old Football Writers Association Footballer of the Year has made six appearances in total for Roy Hodgson’s side, scoring two goals — against Germany and the Netherlands in March 2016 — and will be hopeful of going to Euro 2016 in June.

- Ryan Kelly, Goal.com

The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!

Egyptian champs searching for fifth manager this season as McLeish is sacked after 65 days

Just the 5 gongs for Dimitri Payet at the West Ham end-of-season awards

Author
The 42
View 26 comments
Close
26 Comments
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.