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In Cremona everything is about music: the city, located in the heart of the Po Valley, is where the greatest luthier of all time, Antonio Stradivari, was born. His violins – unique pieces, each identified by a name – are today in the hands of some of the greatest musicians in the world and can fetch a price of more than £10m.
So it was no coincidence that the Violin Museum, in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, was chosen to unveil who the city’s football team, Cremonese, hope will become their greatest soloist: Jamie Vardy.
The excitement that the former Leicester forward has created in these parts is almost impossible to describe. Before Vardy entered the stage two local journalists were saying they could not believe that such a player, a world-renowned name, had joined the club to put this small provincial city on the European football map.
The 38-year-old joining Cremonese – who are newly promoted to Serie A but have started the season with two successive wins including victory at Milan – was a shock to Grigiorossi fans and for Italian football as a whole.
“If a month ago someone had told me that today I would be here presenting Vardy, I would have called him crazy,” the team’s sporting director, Simone Giacchetta, said. “But in football sometimes certain distances can be bridged.”
And then, there he was, the working-class hero of English football, the striker who led Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester to the Premier League title in 2015‑16, sitting in the middle of the wonderful auditorium named after the honorary president of Cremonese, Cavaliere Giovanni Arvedi.
Looking relaxed in a white polo shirt with the grey and red stripes of his new club, a pair of blue trousers and light shoes, Vardy is sitting in a leather armchair at the centre of the wooden theatre, casually answering questions, completely at ease.
There are a lot of smiles, for example when he and Giacchetta discuss the hashtag that has gone viral in recent days: “StradiVardy”, a version of a nickname that had already been used for another famous striker who, at the start of his career wore the Cremonese shirt: the late Gianluca Vialli.
Or when he is told that someone compared the impact of his arrival in Cremona to that of Cristiano Ronaldo at Juventus. “The first time coming to the city with the fans was fantastic,” he says. “They had told me it was a quiet place but it was quite the opposite in the first days. It was a lot of fun and I discovered a bit of the city, going up the Torrazzo [the city’s famous tower]. I will learn Italian, but [for now] it is not a problem: football has its own language, with the ball.”
Vardy’s impact has been incredible. After his arrival season ticket sales were reopened and ended with a figure of 8,208 – which may not sound much but the city has only a little more than 70,000 inhabitants. It was a record. This season’s Cremonese shirt is sold out: they can only be ordered on the club’s website but without a delivery date. In a few days more shirts were sold than in the entirety of last season.
There is a buzz around the place and Vardy is asked whether Cremonese, who sit joint top after two matches, can repeat Leicester’s miracle. “I spoke to Arvedi and [the coach] Davide Nicola and I understood that the primary objective at the start of the season is survival, just like it was at Leicester,” he says. “Clearly, match after match we give 100%. In football anyone can beat anyone, that is what we train for.
“During my whole career I have been underestimated and I worked to prove everyone wrong, and I have succeeded in doing that. I get that at the start of the season almost no one believed that Cremonese would survive. The coach, however, with his work ethic, wants to avoid relegation at all costs. It has been a great start but we know it will be a long season. The fight to beat the odds is what convinced me to join.”
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There was praise too for the club’s owner, Arvedi, whose family business is in the metal industry. “What struck me was his humility,” Vardy says. “You immediately understand his commitment to the city. He gave me a book in English about Cremona, which was a really nice gesture. He wants to see the club saved and making progress. My family is excited for this new adventure.”
Vardy, warming up now, also has something to say about the sceptics who see this more as a marketing ploy than anything else. “If you ask me that question, then you are one of the sceptics,” he says, smiling at the journalist who had asked about it. “It is up to me to disprove the predictions. Age is just a number. I always listen to my legs. At the moment I still feel great. During the summer I wanted to show on social media that I was keeping myself in the best possible shape and coming back to training with the team was incredible. Training is going very well.”
His first chance to be involved is on Monday when Cremonese visit Verona and he talked about two Italian coaches who have had a big impact on his career: Ranieri and Enzo Maresca. “I haven’t spoken to Ranieri yet,” he says, “but he has always spoken well of me so I don’t want to disappoint him.
“Meanwhile Serie A is perhaps a little more tactical and there is more of a desire to have possession. But I was coached by Enzo and he knows that type of game well. Many people have said that Italian style does not suit me but I finished the season under him with 20 goals. You are never too old to learn.”
Vardy gets up to leave, his first appearance a success. Now the real test begins.
