Foxes fan to name daughter after Jamie Vardy

A Leicester City fan has pledged to name his unborn daughter after star striker Jamie Vardy following an online petition.

Ashley Marriott, 28, convinced his girlfriend to give their baby the middle name ‘Vardy’ if he was able to collect 5,000 signatures in an online poll, a feat he easily smashed following local press attention in his plight.

“Jokingly the other night she said to me, ‘I’ve been following your campaign, it’s not really got anywhere’, and the day after…it went everywhere,” Marriott told the BBC. “I’m happy and I think she’s taken to it now - there’s no way you can back out from it now.

“I kept saying about it and she thought I was joking, but I was serious. I wanted it to happen so I had to do something to show I was serious.”

The baby is due to be born in the middle of Euro 2016, when the Premier League’s top scorer is expected to be featuring for England.