Italian Media Make Feelings Clear After Jamie Vardy's Cremonese Debut

Former Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy made his Cremonese debut on Monday evening in a 0-0 draw at Verona.

Vardy came on just before the hour mark, but failed to find the net as Cremonese were forced to settle for a point, having won their previous two games this season.

The 38-year-old joined the Serie A side this summer, after 13 years at Leicester City, where he fired the Foxes to Premier League glory in 2016 and FA Cup success in 2021. Indeed, across his time at Leicester, Vardy netted some 200 goals in 500 games.

Cremonese, meanwhile, were promoted to Serie A via the play-offs last term, and have since beaten AC Milan 2-1 and defeated Sassuolo 3-2 in their first two games of the campaign.

After the goalless draw with Verona, Vardy said on X: "A good hard-fought point away from home.

"I'm happy to have made my @USCremonese debut tonight and I'm looking forward to playing at home on Sunday."

However, a consensus of Italian media has been relatively underwhelmed by Vardy’s first introduction to Italian football, though in part due to a lack of opportunities.

Vermouth Deportivo said Vardy "failed to make much of an impact" on the game.

Meanwhile, Football Italia stated that the Englishman and his team found opportunities to be "fairly limited" across the tie, adding: "Cremonese tried to play to Vardy’s strengths, attempting to feed him with balls in behind, but Verona were well set-up and opportunities across the 90 were fairly limited for La Cremo.

"Vardy tried to open the scoring with a flick on Franco Vasquez’s speculative ball into the area with 10 minutes to go, but it was easily dealt with by Lorenzo Montipo."

Vardy made his debut on Monday evening. Image: Getty

Forza Inter, meanwhile, said Vardy “failed to have an impact on the result”, while Goal Italia added that his first appearance for Cremonese was underwhelming.

In their report they said: “Vardy, who after several years in the English amateur leagues joined Leicester in 2012, staying there until 2025, failed to find the net on his debut, nor to fire a shot towards Montipo's goal in a decidedly close match with just one shot on target from the visitors.”

Vardy will be hoping for more opportunities to impact his new side on Saturday, when Cremonese host a Parma side that have conceding five goals and scoring just once in the first five games of the season.