Jamie Vardy Takes on New Role in German Football

Jamie Vardy has a new role in German football – and this time he is not running in behind a high line.

According to The Athletic’s German football correspondent Seb Stafford-Bloor, the former Leicester City and England striker is now a live rights holder for the Bundesliga. His first assignment comes tonight, with coverage of Bayern Munich vs Stuttgart.

Vardy is linking up with That’s Football, the channel fronted by Mark Goldbridge of The United Stand, to bring live Bundesliga broadcasts into a landscape still dominated by the Premier League. The move drops one of English football’s most recognisable modern forwards into a league that has long been admired from afar but rarely given this kind of front-and-centre treatment for British and Irish audiences.

This is not a one-off experiment. It forms part of a broader push from the Bundesliga to cut through in the UK and Ireland by leaning on familiar English voices and personalities. The league already works with That’s Football, and Vardy’s arrival adds another high-profile name – one whose story from non-league to Premier League champion still carries serious weight with fans.

The idea is simple: use two well-known figures, on and off the pitch, to make Germany’s top flight feel less distant and more like must-watch weekend fare. As part of that strategy, Vardy will host live watchalongs of selected matches, offering his reactions in real time as the action unfolds.

Kevin Hatchard, one of the English-language commentators on the Bundesliga’s international feed, has welcomed the move and given his view on Vardy stepping into the live-watchalong space.

For the Bundesliga, it is a calculated play: pair its on-field drama with Premier League-era star power and see how many new eyes turn towards Germany on a Saturday night.