The sensational season that Jamie Vardy is enjoying at Leicester City has rekindled the dream that many non-league footballers have of hitting the big time.
Just over four years ago, Vardy was a Northern Premier League footballer, plying his trade at Halifax Town, six divisions below the Premier League. Now, he is one of English football’s most coveted talents, having broken the record for scoring in the most consecutive top-flight matches and put himself in contention for a place in Roy Hodgson’s England squad at the European Championship in France this summer.
Peace haven and Telscombe v East Grinstea by grassrootsgroundswell
While the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City keep tabs on the likelihood of prying Vardy away from the King Power Stadium during the transfer window, and fans flock to football betting websites to bet on his likely destination, elsewhere there are hundreds of talented players at Yorkshire clubs, hoping to make the leap from non-league to the top divisions by securing the kind of transfer that took Vardy from Fleetwood Town to Leicester City back in May 2012.
Whitby’s leading light
Whitby Town are facing a relegation battle in the Evo-Stick Premier Division in the second half of this season, so they will be desperate to hang on to the talents of star striker Michael Roberts. His goals have kept them in with a fighting chance of escaping the bottom four.
Roberts has scored 15 times already this season, including a stunning hat-trick in the 4-2 victory over Ilkeston, and he is in a rich vein of form after netting four goals in his last seven games. Scouts from the Football League will be keeping close tabs on the 24-year-old’s progress to see if he might be the next Yorkshire-based player to make the grade.
Boyes wants another bite at the big time
Guiseley striker Adam Boyes was a youth team player at York City when he was handed a trial at Manchester United back in 2008.
Sadly for him, the Premier League giants opted not to sign the lad from Lingdale. But Boyes went on to sign professional terms at York and enjoyed a steady start to life as a pro, scoring twice in 26 appearances in his first season.
But it was at Barrow where Boyes really cut his teeth, scoring 29 times in 85 appearances for the Cumbrians. He is now a mainstay in the Guiseley team, scoring 23 times in 38 games last season. His tally of four so far this term is more modest, but he remains one of the National League’s top players and an England C international.
Halifax duo dream of Vardy-esque stardom
Halifax are struggling in 21st place in the Conference this season, but their strike duo of Jordan Burrow and Shaun Tuton is one of the division’s stand-out pairings.
With 22 goals between them, Burrow and Tuton are making superb progress and catching the eye of clubs far higher up football’s pecking order than Halifax. At the age of just 23, both players appear to have bright futures ahead of them.