Kolkata: Leicester City and England striker Jamie Vardy received death threats from fans after his alleged involvement in the sacking of ex-Leicester city manager Claudio Ranieri. The striker said that the sacking of Ranieri had led to his family and him receiving death threats from the fans of the current English Premier League (EPL) champions.
Vardy also added that apart from receiving such threats, the incident of sacking Ranieri had portrayed him as someone “football fans don’t seem to like.” These repercussions have resulted in road-rage incidents where Vardy’s wife Rebekah has been the victim.
“The story is out there, then people pick it up and jump on it and you’re getting death threats about your family, kids, everything,” Vardy said. “I try to get on with it but when people are trying to cut your missus up while she’s driving along with the kids in the back of the car it’s not the best. It’s happened plenty of times. It is terrifying” he added. Vardy said the threats had been made, “on social media, walking down the street, you name it.”
According to the star striker, he was wrongly named as one of the players who allegedly turned against the manager who won the first league championship in Leicester’s history. “Apparently meeting that got him sacked I read one story that said it was straight after the Sevilla game. Absolute shambles. It said I was personally involved in a meeting when I was actually sat in anti-doping for three hours. The stories were quite harmful. A lot of false accusations were being thrown out there and there’s nothing us, as players, could do about it,” he said.
Vardy also said that he was not aware of any problems between the players and the former manager. After returning from the Sevilla game, Ranieri was sacked and the players including Vardy reacted quite late to this sudden incident. He accepted it as quite odd that the players didn’t extend their support in social media for the manager who earned the club a recognition they have been dreaming for years. Though he clarified that he was too tired after the game and also, he had to bathe his children! The striker of England who is preparing for the friendly against Germany accepted that the sacking of Ranieri had led to an image demotion of him as fans in every stadium he played abused him.
(With inputs from Agencies)