If we were to tell you that, during a game between Barcelona and Leicester, a half-time request came in from one player to exchange shirts with an opposition player, you’d be excused for thinking that it was a man in blue who wanted a souvenir from a clash with the Catalan giants.
But, in fact, it was a Barcelona forward who wanted proof of the day that he came up against the Foxes.
When Leicester met Barca in Stockholm in the summer, Luis Suarez was the eager individual who asked Jamie Vardy for his jersey less than three months after the Premier League trophy was lifted by the striker.
In the friendly, Suarez committed the act that is more typically seen after the half-time whistle of Champions League ties between European giants and minnows when unheralded players want to take home a commemorative token of a match against one of their heroes.
Vardy has revealed that Suarez approached him at the break of the International Champions Cup game to request a shirt swap. And we can’t say we blame the Uruguay international.
“It varies [who decides who swaps with whom]. When we played Barcelona pre-season, I knew the lads would all be trying to get a shirt, so I weren’t going to ask anyone,” Vardy said in an interview in the Times magazine.
“Then, coming in at half-time, Luis Suarez asked if he could have mine.”
That’s a pretty special compliment coming from a player of Suarez’s standards.
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