Jamie Vardy has paid tribute to outgoing Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel following his transfer to French side Nice.
Schmeichel has moved to the south of France for a reported £1million, having spent a decade playing alongside Vardy at the King Power Stadium. During their 10-year stint, the Foxes won the FA Cup, Community Shield, Championship, and most famously of all, the Premier League title.
Following the news that Schmeichel's move had been finalised on Wednesday, the Leicester striker wrote on Instagram : "Kasper, it's been a pleasure mate. All the best." The post was Vardy's first public statement since his wife, Rebekah, spoke publicly in a bombshell interview about her recent court case with Coleen Rooney.
A club legend like Vardy, the 35-year-old Dane heads to Nice with well wishes from the entire of Foxes family, as chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha added: "Throughout his time with us and particularly as a captain and vice-captain, Kasper has always been a player willing to stand up and take responsibility, leading the team with distinction.
"His influence and his leadership on and off the pitch speak volumes about him as a professional, as a football player and as a human being. I know Leicester City supporters share the respect we all have for a player of Kasper's standing after all his accomplishments as a footballer and captain and will join me in wishing him the very best for the next stage of his career in France with OGC Nice."
Last week, Rebekah Vardy lost a libel battle against Coleen Rooney over a viral social media post, after a High Court judge found it was "substantially true." Rooney, 36, said she had carried out a months-long "sting operation" and accused Rebekah of leaking "false stories" about her private life to the press.
In the bombshell interview, Rebekah accused Rooney of "weaponising" her fan base in what became known as the "Wagatha Christie" trial. Speaking to The Sun, the 40-year-old described how she called Rooney to confront her about the original post, which was put online in October 2019.
"I picked up the phone and I called her and basically said 'what the f*** is this?' and her response was quite, I don't know, quite rude, quite harsh," Rebekah explained. "She basically just said, 'you know what this is?' And at that point, I really didn't know what it was.
"I'd read the words and you know when you read something, and it's like reading it about someone else. And it's like, 'no, surely this is not real. This can't be real'." She added: "No one would do something so sinister knowing that they were weaponising a fan base against someone."
