JAMIE VARDY

Every time I have stepped up a level, I wasn't expecting it to happen, but once it did, I just made sure I worked as hard as I possibly could to stay there.

Moving to Fleetwood was a shock to the system at first. I'd never been at a full-time club.

Being in the Premier League would be a dream come true.

People keep asking me if I'm watching our rivals' games in the Premier League, but I'm usually on my PlayStation. If I had been watching, it would have been on an illegal stream, so I don't even know why they are asking me.

I don't really leave the house. Literally, I train, come home, look after the kids, the dogs, my missus... then it's time to go to bed.

I pinch myself every day anyway. Everyone knows the road I have had in the game and how I have managed to get myself to where I am today.

You do get a chance to think about things when you're at home, but that is when you want to relax and forget about football for a bit. Honestly, you don't really get time to stop and think about things. We have a job to do. That is all we concentrate on, going game by game.

There is only one thing I want to do here, and that is play football to the best of my ability. If I let things start distracting me, I'm not going to be able to do that, which will jeopardise the team as well.

Obviously, when you're doing fitness work at a club all week and every week, it's all about specific drills for what you need to do on the pitch. So I'd be doing a different drill to the centre-midfielders. It's all specifically tailored for me. For example, my drills are high speed. It's all about trying to break the line with a sharp sprint.

My diet is not unorthodox. I just eat like anyone else - that's just how I am. Everyone is different. It is just my metabolism that keeps me this slim.

I love a good paella, so I'd love to be able to know how to cook one.

If you go into a tournament thinking that you're not going to do anything, you might as well not be there because you won't achieve anything.

When training and matches are finished, we'll all go out and have food together; we're always in touch with each other.

When I lived in Hungerford, it was wake up 5:30 A.M., get to the van at 6 A.M. with eight other blokes, drive to Shinfield, which is in Reading, 45 minutes away. Start at 7:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. with two half-hour breaks and then home. Train Tuesday and Thursday and then play on Saturday.

A friend got attacked outside a nightclub just for being deaf. I stuck up for him but ended up getting in a bit of a trouble myself. I played with a tag at Stocksbridge. I had a little curfew. Luckily, it didn't stop me playing football. Being put on a tag, I could have lost playing football again.

On a real course, I'd probably want to throw my club in the water if I hit a duff shot. I'll give golf a miss - it's definitely not my sport.

When you are moulding 30 an hour, it takes its toll on your body. It got to the point where my back was just hanging off. It was time to say, 'I can't do this any more'.

I like a drink and enjoy being Jack the Lad. I've had a few scraps and spent a night in a cell.

There's a lot of people blocked on my Twitter for various reasons which I don't need to get into.

If I'm played out of position, I'll always give 100%, but everyone knows I would rather play down the middle.

After a Saturday game, we're in on a Sunday to cool down and make sure we're fully back at it again. But it doesn't really affect things too much. It's basically like you've had a game on the Saturday, and then you're in the cup on a Tuesday.

The best present I've ever given someone is myself. I've given it to everyone.

It wasn't nice having to work full-time. It's a rise that I wouldn't have predicted, but it's a good example for younger players of what can be achieved.

No one can take their place or their England shirt for granted. If I want to be in that squad, I need to keep banging in the goals to make sure I stay in the manager's plans.

My life has changed, but I'm not money-motivated at all; that's the last thing on my mind. I just want to play football, and that's how I've always been.