Five Jamie Vardy replacements Leicester should sign, including League One hotshot and elite Championship striker

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The Jamie Vardy party is coming to an end for Leicester City, and the Foxes are going to have a hard time replacing him for next season.

After 13 (mostly) great years at the King Power Stadium, Vardy has called time on his career with Leicester and is now looking for his next move this summer.

The veteran striker’s contract was coming to an end in June, but until today, it was unclear whether Leicester would offer him a new deal or let him depart.

Now, we know for certain, as the man himself confirmed he will exit this summer. Leicester fans are devastated by the news, but the club now needs to act fast and bring in a new number nine who can fill that massive void Vardy will leave behind.

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Five strikers who can replace Jamie Vardy at Leicester

Josh Sargent

If Leicester are serious about getting promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking, they’ll need a top striker, and there would be few better they could land than Josh Sargent.

Sargent is expected to leave Norwich this summer, but the problem for Leicester is, he’s wanted by Premier League clubs already, and honestly, he is better than Championship level so he deserves a big move.

But, in terms of a like-for-like replacement for Vardy, Sargent fits the bill perfectly. He’s agile, smart, a prolific finisher, and works incredibly hard for the team.

He won’t be cheap, but he’s surely the best option on the market.

Ryan Hardie

Plymouth Argyle may be going down this season, but the main man keeping their hopes alive in the Championship relegation battle is Ryan Hardie.

His ten goals have been crucial to their recent revival, and if they are to stay up, it will largely come down to how he performs in the next two matches.

Whether Argyle survive or not, we can surely expect Hardie to be the subject of interest from elsewhere this summer, and he could slip seamlessly into the Leicester attack as a proven provider of goals.

Charlie Kelman

If Leicester want to take more of a gamble, they could look down in League One at the top talent there, and if they do, they’ll find Charlie Kelman heading up the scoring charts for Leyton Orient.

Kelman could be QPR’s secret weapon next season when he returns from his loan spell, but his 21-goal haul in League One will have other clubs on alert, too.

QPR will be keen to keep him, but it probably wouldn’t take a huge offer to prise Kelman away from them, and he’s exactly the kind of dogged, creative, pacey striker Vardy was in his prime.

Richard Kone

Another League One hotshot that will be on everyone’s wishlist this summer is Richard Kone, who is just behind Kelman in the Golden Boot race in the third tier.

We already know Norwich are among those interested in Kone, but Leicester would naturally have more pulling power than the Canaries.

In many ways, this could be a win-win for the Foxes, though; either they beat Norwich to the signing of the promising 21-year-old, or they let Norwich bag him and take Sargent off their hands instead.

Colby Bishop

Portsmouth have gone under the radar this season, managing to secure their Championship status, maintain great home form, and do it all without being trigger happy and firing their manager when the chips were down.

A big part of their success this year has been the goals of Josh Murphy, Callum Lang, and Colby Bishop. The latter has 11 league goals in 30 games for Pompey, including six in his last nine games.

Bishop has a similar frame to Vardy, loves to cause chaos among the opposition’s defence, and is capable of an array of different finishes. He’s a great all-rounder, and again, wouldn’t cost a pretty penny, either.

• READ MORE: Jamie Vardy can escape his ‘miserable’ Leicester City nightmare by joining Championship rivals, it makes perfect sense

Leicester fans will be fuming if the club takes the cheap and easy route

One thing’s for sure, Leicester have to recruit someone to replace Vardy. What they cannot do is look to Patson Daka as the answer.

Leicester fans are already gutted about Vardy’s exit and angry about the manner in which the club got relegated. If they had to endure a season with Daka as their lead striker, there could be riots in the streets.

We’ve seen this season how important it is to have strong strikers in order to gain promotion, from Joel Piroe at Leeds to Zion Flemming at Burnley. Leicester are one of the favourites going into the 2025/26 Championship campaign, but they’ll struggle unless they make the right signing in this department.