The city of violins has a new virtuoso. For the calcio connoisseurs of Cremona, Jamie Vardy’s deadline day signing was like music to the ears.
The Leicester City legend was intercepted by a dedicated band of fans when he landed at Milan’s Linate airport late on Sunday night. They had to see it to believe it.
For one though, it was never in doubt. As Vardy signed autographs in the middle of a scrum of adoring supporters, a leg poked through the crowd bearing a tattoo of the striker’s face. Pen to hairy canvas, the diligent Vardy continued his work.
“It was love at first sight,” wrote Corriere dello Sport. “People are literally going crazy.”
The club leaned into its renown as the home of the world-renowned Stradivarius violins – or Stradivari in Italian – by giving their star arrival a new nickname from the off: “StradiVardy is here,” they announced.
A nod to the city’s famous instruments and the club’s most famous son, Gianluca Vialli – or StradiVialli – it has caught on. By the time Vardy roared “come on Cremo” down the camera after penning his one-year deal, excitement was rampant.
It was a fairytale end to a remarkable summer of change at the newly promoted club, who returned to Serie A after two years away through the play-offs in June.
Vardy’s Premier League triumph with Leicester in 2016 is fondly remembered in Italy, it being masterminded by an Italian – Claudio Ranieri – and coming at a time when at home, Juventus looked untouchable in the middle of a nine-year Scudetto stranglehold.
The striker’s status as an icon of the underdog wasn’t lost on the fans who met him at the airport.
“Jamie Vardy, bring us to Europe,” they sang. A voice shouted: “Conference League please!”
It’s a farfetched, probably tongue-in -cheek, aspiration – Cremonese have spent only eight years in Serie A, and six of those resulted in immediate relegation. When Leicester won the title nine years ago, the Grigiorossi were in the third tier.
But you can understand the giddy excitement in this small city of 70,000 inhabitants on the southern border of Lombardy after a remarkable couple of weeks.
Cremonese stunned AC Milan at San Siro on the opening day with a 2-1 win, before beating Sassuolo in a 3-2 thriller on Friday to ensure they go into the international break joint-top of the table alongside Napoli, Juventus and Roma.
By the time Vardy was running out in front of 1,000 fans at an open training session on Tuesday, replies to the club’s videos of the striker wearing a Cremonese shirt for the first time suggested it was all a bit much for some.
Showing up amongst the Treasures of Cremona with his new colours. Welcome, 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝑽𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒚!
— U.S. Cremonese (@USCremonese) September 2, 2025#TuttaUnAltraMusica #SeiGrAndeSolamenteTu #Cremonese #Cremona #SerieAEnilive #JamieVardy #Vardy pic.twitter.com/7d8lqZxuvX
“I’ve never followed Cremonese with this much affection and attention before,” one fan wrote. “Every video makes me want to cry.”
The Italian media has delighted in the news in a summer where modern-day greats Luka Modric and Kevin De Bruyne also landed in Serie A, at Milan and Napoli respectively.
Vardy was proclaimed “the new first violinist of Cremona” by local press. Rivista Undici called the move “absurd and wonderful”, while TMW described it as a “dream turned reality”.
At the open training session, Gazzetta dello Sport described an “enthusiasm that hasn’t been seen for a long time” among fans.
With the international break underway, those supporters face an agonising wait to see Vardy in action, their next match being an away trip to Hellas Verona on Monday, 15 September.
It remains to be seen whether Vardy, who has been handed the number 10 shirt, will have enough match fitness to feature after a summer out of action following his Leicester exit. If not, the visit of Parma the following weekend could be his moment.
Both are winnable games for a side that has raised expectations internally and externally following their spectacular start to a season where many had tipped them to go straight back down to Serie B.
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There have been wholesale changes; Vardy was one of four players to arrive in the final 24 hours of the window, with Brighton’s Jeremy Sarmiento among the others. Head coach Davide Nicola, a renowned survival specialist who once cycled the length of Italy to celebrate improbably keeping Crotone up, was also brought in during the off-season.
In total, 17 new players have come in, curiously among them Romano Floriani Mussolini, the great-grandson of fascist dictator Benito, and an abundance of attackers who will challenge Vardy for a starting role.
The 38-year-old is one of seven options fighting for two attacking spots in Nicola’s preferred 3-5-2 formation, alongside Federico Bonazzoli, Antonio Sanabria, David Okereke, Faris Moumbagna, Manuel De Luca and Franco Vazquez.
But all eyes will be on StradiVardy to make the difference. They have rarely seen days like these in Cremona, and if anyone can orchestrate a survival bid – or better – it is surely the renowned champion of the underdog.
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