LEICESTER hero Jamie Vardy WILL play in the Prem next season — after agreeing a new one-year deal.
The out-of-contract striker, 37, is being rewarded for firing the Foxes to the Championship title with two goals in Monday’s 3-0 win at Preston.
Vardy had been tipped for a career swansong in Saudi Arabia or America.
But Foxes boss Enzo Maresca has got his wish to keep the ex-England star.
Vardy will now get another Premier League party and the chance to add to his 136 top-flight goals.
And the extension will take him into his thirteenth season at the club and beyond his 38th birthday.
Vardy’s Deepdale double took his season tally to 20 goals — his best return in four years — as fans sang for him to stay for “ten more years”.
His last experience of Prem football ended in relegation 12 months ago, but his 24 goals helped Leicester defy all odds and win the title eight years ago.
Vardy also won the FA Cup in 2021 and is just ten shy of 200 goals in a Foxes shirt — leaving him third on the club’s all-time list.
Maresca has previously hailed the forward and claimed he could score goals well into his forties.
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He said: “Jamie Vardy is Leicester. Jamie Vardy has always scored goals in his life and he’s going to score goals even when he’s 40, 45
“It’s in his blood to score goals. We are very lucky that he’s our player.
“Now we finish (the season), we have a game Saturday, and then we sit.
“But my feeling is that he’s going to stay this is my feeling, if I can decide.”
The Foxes sealed promotion and when Leeds lost to QPR on Friday.
The club now has the chance to claim 100 points in their match against Blackburn this Saturday.
Meresca added: “It’s a fantastic feeling. We’ve said many times, it has been a tough season, intense.
“The Championship is a long season, many games, but at the end we did it and we are very happy.
“The performances were there and I think we completely deserved this target.”
