While Riyad Mahrez might have been named Player of the Year, a big sub-plot among the contenders was Jamie Vardy’s clinical finishing versus Dimitri Payet’s effortless elegance.
Well, it turns out it wasn’t the first time those two factors have been in direct opposition to one another.
Vardy’s path to stardom has been made public, with the England international having worked in a carbon fibre splint factory before finding his way to the upper echelons of the game.
It’s the perfect metaphor for someone making the best out of the materials at his disposal, but how can we find a contrived symbol of Payet’s neat-and-tidy play that defines the phrase ‘easy on the eye’?
If only the West Ham midfielder was caught on camera neatly folding clothes and finding the top corner (of the shelf), at around the same time that Vardy was plying his trade with Stocksbridge Park Steels.
What’s that? Such a thing exists, and can be found on a leading video sharing site? Well isn’t that convenient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzCHPe9kqN0&ab_channel=JennyWalker
The footage, from Jenny Walker’s YouTube channel, shows a teenage Payet working at a clothing store in Nantes, back when he was playing lower-league football for Les Canaris‘ second-string.
Just five years later he was making his international debut for France against Romania in a Euro 2012 qualifier.
Stocksbridge Park v stocking shelves. It’s almost too perfect.
