Vardy recalls watching Serie A on Channel Four and enjoying Juventus legend Del Piero – Football Italia

Jamie Vardy gave his first press conference as a Cremonese player today in Cremona’s Violin Museum and the former Leicester City striker answered questions on a number of topics.

One of the most frequent topics was that of Serie A itself and the English forward went into detail about his history with the league and differences to the Premier League.

Speaking to the press, via Cremonese’s YouTube channel, Vardy reflected on the Football Italia days on Channel Four, where Italian matches would be shown in the UK, “Ever since I was a kid, back in the UK, they used to show Serie A games on Channel Four so it was great to have football on a Sunday morning and to be able to watch it.”

He continued, “But obviously over the years you get to see all the games because they are all live now and there is always a channel you can pick it up on.”

‘Serie A a really good league but different to Premier League’ – Vardy

Vardy was full of praise for Italy’s top flight, describing it as “a really good league, one of the top ones”, before adding that it is “slightly different to the Premier League.” The Englishman said that Serie A is “more tactical and more possession-based” but noted that “even last year I was playing with Enzo Maresca and he’s brought that style with him to the UK so it is not like I’ve not been involved with teams that play that way.”

The former Leicester striker expanded on Maresca’s influence on him, stating he “played a similar way” to Serie A under the coach. “People were saying I wouldn’t be able to adapt to that and I finished that season with 20 goals. So you can never be too old to learn. You can always learn.”

Vardy worked with legendary Italian coach Claudio Ranieri at Leicester, when the two helped the Foxes to a famous Premier League title in 2015-16. In the press conference, Vardy revealed “I haven’t had the chance to speak with Ranieri yet but I know he sung my praises to the manager so I better not let him down.”

Vardy cagey on other offers as striker recalls enjoyment of Del Piero

One reporter asked Vardy how many other offers he turned down before joining Cremonese but the experienced forward was careful in his response, “I don’t feel comfortable with announcing numbers of teams that came in or anything. People come in and at the end of the day it was down to me to make a decision and my decision with my family was obviously Cremonese and that’s the one I stand by and I’m looking forward to it.”

The same reporter asked the forward if he had any idols in Serie A history, or players he used to look up to. Vardy replied “It was more back in the day when I was a kid but seeing the likes of Del Piero scoring week-in week-out is always very enjoyable to watch when you’re a striker yourself.”

Read all the quotes from the press conference here.