A huge club have emerged as favourites to sign out-of-contract forward Jamie Vardy after another side’s manager stopped a deal from happening despite the 38-year-old ‘agreeing’ a move abroad.
Vardy, 38, left Leicester City upon the expiration of his contract earlier this summer. And after winning the FA Cup and Premier League title during his 13 years at the Foxes, he is now a free agent.
Earlier this summer, the former England international was heavily linked with a move to Championship side Wrexham, but no such deal materialised. There were also reports linking him with a move to the MLS.
Recently, it was reported by Tutto Mercato that the Sheffield-born forward was close to joining Serie A side Genoa, with the club’s sporting director, Flavio Ricciardella, putting together a deal to bring Vardy to Italy.
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A deal was reportedly agreed with sponsors helping to finance a move before head coach Patrick Viera stepped in and supposedly vetoed the decision.
Now a new favourite has emerged.
According to Oddchecker, Rangers are now favourites to sign Vardy, followed by any Italian side, Como, Nottingham Forest, Wrexham, Celtic and Everton.
If he were to join Rangers, he would get the chance to once again play European football in the Champions League, having previously reached the quarter-finals of the competition during his time at Leicester in 2017.
New Rangers head coach Russell Martin was asked about the potential for a move following his side’s 2-2 pre-season friendly draw against Belgian side Club Brugge at Ibrox on Sunday.
“I think I’ve been asked about so many players,” Martin said. “Some miles away, some on the money. So basically, I’m not going to give you an answer on that.
“But I guess you’ll find out who’s real and who’s not in the next few weeks.”
He added: “I think we definitely want to do more, for sure. And also probably some players need to move on as well at some point because the squad’s going to start looking very big and very heavy.”
The Glasgow-based side has also been linked with Leicester centre-back Conor Coady and Wolves defender Nasser Djiga.
Could Jamie Vardy retire?
There were some suggestions that Vardy was going to call time on his career upon the expiration his contract, but the player quickly rubbished the claims during an interview with Sky Sports back in May.
"Football is a crazy world. You never know what's going to happen," Vardy said.
"I'll keep going until my legs tell me I need to stop. My legs are fine.
"I'm doing a sport that I love, it's what I've done since I was a little kid so long may that continue."
Topics: Jamie Vardy, Rangers, Transfer News, Football, Scottish Premiership, Champions League, Leicester City, Patrick Vieira
Luke Davies