Leeds Beckett lecturer takes top job at Jamie Vardy Academy

Senior Sport Lecturer Lee Tucker is project leader and head of recruitment at the V9 Academy.

The Academy was launched by Vardy earlier this year with the express aim of promoting talent from non-league football, where he famously began his own career with Stocksbridge Park Steels in Sheffield before being propelled to Premier League title-winning stardom.

Lee, who had a professional career of his own and has worked in Middlesbrough’s youth set-up, was asked to get involved by Vardy’s agent John Morris, alongside whom he studied at Leeds Beckett between 1999 and 2002.

Sport and Social Sciences Course Leader Lee said: “John has approached me about a couple of different projects over the years.

“This one I was straight into it. I saw the value and what it could do for people. A lot of my work is about development and equality. It was wholly positive from my perspective.

“John knows my history in football and he’s also seen me with my sport development hat on with the University. Both come together – the skills I have picked up at Leeds Beckett have stood me in good stead for this.”

Interest in the V9 Academy has been huge, with more than 1,500 online applications since its launch, as players bid to follow in Vardy’s footsteps.

Join the Journey.... #v9academy pic.twitter.com/KecL4iPs3T

— Jamie Vardy (@vardy7) May 9, 2016

Lee has set about whittling down remaining names by watching games across the country, with the process due to culminate in 42 players being invited to a five-day residential in front of scouts at

Manchester City’s Etihad Campus – dubbed ‘Disneyworld for footballers’ – next summer.

The journey is also being documented by camera crews with six one-hour fly-on-the-wall episodes set to air on Sky Sports next year.

Lee said: “You want that mentality, strength of character. Everybody who applies shows an element of that – that’s quite important. Obviously there’s technical, tactical and physical aspects when you watch the player themselves as well.

“There have been plenty of players over the years that have gone from the non-leagues to play for England. Jamie, Stuart Pearce, Chris Waddle – you just don’t know. All we want to do is give them a chance.”

Vardy’s agent John said friend Lee was an obvious choice to nurture the talent they were looking for. 

He said: “The course we did at Leeds Beckett was Sport and Recreation Development. We got close as friends, went our separate ways for a period of time and then he got a random call from me just when he thought he had got me out of his life.

“This project is so important to us, we wanted someone we knew could deliver. His background in football was important but also the work he’s doing at Leeds Beckett University – organisation, project management and the fact he teaches students how to do that kind of thing.”

Reflecting on watching Vardy’s own rise first-hand, including breaking a Premier League record by scoring in 11 consecutive games, John added: “You sometimes sit there thinking: Has that actually happened?

“The one for me was the goal-scoring record. Shearers, Owens and van Nistelrooys… there’s no-one in Premier League history to have done that.

“Alan Shearer has more than 200 goals but then the little lad from a factory in South Yorkshire has gone and broken a different type of record.”

Jamie Vardy:

2010: Playing for Stocksbridge Park Steels.

2016: Scored for England against Germany, Holland & Spain.

Incredible story ⚽️👏 pic.twitter.com/6zMVpcULIr

— SPORF (@Sporf) November 15, 2016