“He made sure to finish the bottle” – Defender shares amusing Vardy anecdote, ‘pints’ and ‘pizza’ diet for Leicester star

Leicester City fans, let’s take you back to a time when Ritchie De Laet was a player at the King Power Stadium.

The defender spent four years at the club after joining from Manchester United for just over £1m, and while he didn’t play a huge part in the Foxes’ impressive 2016 Premier League title win, he was still a member of the club, playing alongside players who are still there to this day.

Among those is Jamie Vardy, who is fourth on the club’s all-time top scorer’s list with 144 goals in 339 games for the club, and is now part of the woodwork, almost certain to end his career at Leicester.

De Laet, now a player at Royal Antwerp in Belgium, shared a couple of anecdotes with Het Nieuwsblad, relayed by DH, including one about the striker’s well-known habits before games.

He said: “The night before a game, Jamie drinks pints and only eats pizza. For example, when he beat Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s record by scoring in 11 consecutive games, well, the night before, the bus driver bought us a bottle of port. We hid it in our hotel room. I had a glass, and Jamie made sure to finish the rest of the bottle”.

During his time at the club, Ritchie De Laet featured 129 times, scoring five goals and assisted 10 goals, with more than half of those coming in the Championship back when Leicester’s challenges were somewhat very different to the ones encountered by Brendan Rodgers and co. today.