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Jamie Vardy is a true Premier League GREAT: Leicester livewire was a late bloomer from non-league but he ranks alongside the top strikers of the modern era

When Championship scouts attend non-League games, only the most optimistic do so expecting to find a Premier League star of the future.

Yet for Mark Stow, the Cardiff talent-spotter at Fleetwood’s Blue Square Premier match against Lincoln on April 13, 2012, that is exactly what happened when he saw the home side’s No 33.

Jamie Vardy scored each side of half-time in a 2-2 draw and well before the match had ended, Stow was on the phone to his bosses in south Wales. ‘Oh my word,’ said Stow. ‘We have got to sign him.