It has been a long journey to the top from working in a carbon fibre factory

Now he aims to fire England to glory in France, having moved his wedding

He watched the last European Championship finals on holiday in Zante

Leicester striker hopes to add to his England caps in friendlies this week

The memory is a little hazy, but the context is clear. The last time England played in the European Championship finals, Jamie Vardy watched while on holiday in the Greek isles.

It was the summer he left non-League Fleetwood Town for Leicester City in a £1milllion move and each morning he would keep fit by rising early to sprint along the coast of the Ionian Sea.

At night he relaxed in front of the television to see Roy Hodgson's team compete in Donetsk and Kiev. Given some seconds to recollect, Danny Welbeck's flicked winner against Sweden pops into his mind.

Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, the Premier League's scoring sensation, speaks exclusively to Sportsmail

Vardy picked up the Premier League Player of the Month award for October after his goalscoring exploits

Vardy has broken into Roy Hodgson's England squad and is now hoping to play at next summer's Euro 2016

'I remember being on holiday in Zante,' he says, searching back to a time when his career was on a different tangent.

'My mate was working at the hotel we stopped at and it was just two of us. Normal everyday place. I needed to get away and relax. But I was getting up at seven o'clock in the morning in 36-degree heat to go on runs.'

He has not stopped running since, charging up the divisions, around pitches nationwide, and has turned into the Premier League's form striker.

For the next instalment of England at the Euros, Vardy aims to be providing the meaningful moments himself. To that end he has altered plans that even just six months ago seemed fairly safe.

His wedding to fiancee Becky was scheduled for June 2016 but earlier this season, as his goals brought international recognition, he conceded the risk was too great and the date should be brought forward.

'I was due to get married bang on the start of the Euros,' reveals Vardy. 'The missus was on to me to move it. I thought it was fine. Then we moved it just to be on the safe side after I had my first call-up.

'It was on a weekend, it's now a midweek, which is not ideal for guests, but is just one of those things. May 25 is the new date, the week after the season finishes.'

Vardy watched the last European Championship, when Danny Welbeck scored against Sweden, on holiday

Welbeck was celebrating in Kiev as Vardy watched on from a television in the Greek islands in Zante

Vardy's good form has led to him moving his summer wedding in case he gets a call-up for France 2016

JAMIE VARDY SUPER STAT 12 - Vardy is the third highest scorer in Europe's top five leagues this season - behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski, both with 14 goals. Advertisement

The switch was made through hope rather than expectation but as the 28-year-old continues to find the net in such exhilarating style the sense grows that a place in Hodgson's tournament squad will be his.

Vardy's penalty against Watford, dispatched with utter conviction, took his Premier League scoring streak to nine consecutive games — the most by any Englishman — and Ruud van Nistelrooy's record of 10 in a row looks in jeopardy 12 years after it was set. Stan Mortensen's all-time record of 11 straight matches is within sight.

Vardy has 12 Premier League goals in this campaign, by a distance the division's leading total and only kept company across Europe by a handful of strikers. Robert Lewandowski and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have more in the Bundesliga, but not Cristiano Ronaldo in La Liga or any centre forward in Serie A.

From a player well versed in the English top flight, the figures would be impressive. For a striker in his second season at this level, having been playing Conference football in 2011-12, the sequence of performances is staggering.

Vardy won the penalty that gave Leicester their latest win over Watford when fouled by Heurelho Gomes

The in-demand, in-form striker dusted himself down to take his scoring streak to nine consecutive games

His path is now well known, but worth charting again as he edges towards elite history at the age of 28. In 2010-11 he was in the Northern Premier League with Halifax and, as recently as five years ago, his club was Stocksbridge Park Steels of the eighth tier. He was released by Sheffield Wednesday as a teenager for being too small.

That special brew of aggression, speed and finishing which defenders find so uncontrollable has always been there, though. He scored 31 goals in 36 Blue Square Premier games for Fleetwood to convince Leicester to part with a record non-League fee for his signature.

He provides a straightforward answer when asked the secret of his rise and sustained success.

'It's taken a lot of hard work,' says Vardy, who perhaps unsurprisingly has won back possession in the final third more than any other player. 'I will carry on with that attitude and hopefully get even better.'

Vardy was supposed to get married at the start of the Euros but changed his plans after his first call-up

Ruud van Nistelrooy hold record for scoring in 10 consecutive Premier League games - Vardy is one behind

A vignette of his mentality can be found on the eve of his latest goal. Up all night last Thursday as his baby daughter Sofia became ill, he insisted on training on Friday morning even though Claudio Ranieri offered him the day off to rest.

Little of Vardy's life has been spent relaxing. He still groans at the thought of those days he would endure manual labour in a Sheffield factory making carbon fibres for medical splints.

'We were constantly lifting the moulds into the oven,' he remembers. 'Some of the shelves were taller than I am, so I would have to chuck them up. They were so heavy.

'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 was at Halifax and said I would be quitting and concentrating on football for a year. I left the job and four days later I ended up full-time at Fleetwood. I feel lucky. I was willing to give the money away and stay on my Halifax wage, which obviously wasn't a lot.'

Cristiano Ronaldo has not scored as many goals as Vardy this season and nor have any players in La Liga

The Leicester forward built his way up through the divisions before joining Leicester from Fleetwood Town

By that point relations with his factory manager had become strained anyway. 'I didn't really get on with the boss,' he says with a smile. 'I think we fell out when I had 36 Mondays off in one year. Not including Bank Holidays.' Vardy would play for Stocksbridge on a Saturday, then a Sunday pub side called The Anvil: 'Saturday for 90 minutes and Sunday for 90 minutes takes it out of you!'

He says he still wakes up in 'massive dreamland' every day. 'Because of the way I've come into it, I think I appreciate it more,' he adds. 'You hear players in the past say that it's just a job for them, but for me it is nothing like that. I literally wish I could play football every day.

'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. To be honest there are a lot of good players out there in the Conference. I think often it's a case of teams not willing to risk it. Fortunately for me, Leicester did.'

Vardy left his job in a carbon fibre factory and four days later ended up a full-time footballer at Fleetwood

Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri offered Vardy time off to be with his baby daughter but he wants to push on

Now it is Borussia Dortmund reportedly monitoring his progress. Established Premier League teams are inevitably taking a look too.

For now, he is thriving at the King Power Stadium and eager to take his scoring into the international sphere, starting with friendlies against Spain and France.

He admits it was slightly strange meeting up with England as the only Leicester player, but team-bonding saw him settle instantly.

'Last time we had a golf simulator put in at the training ground so there were a few of us lashing a few balls on that — longest drives, etc. Joe Hart won. He' s a big lad — got a decent swing on him!'

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a man always seemingly in a hurry, Vardy struggled.

Vardy's goalscoring form is attracting interest from other clubs but for now he is thriving at Leicester City

'I'm horrendous. I've not got the patience,' he admits. 'The simulator was OK because you just hit a ball as hard as possible and see what happens. If it doesn't go straight you're not bothered because you don't have to go and find it!

'The bloke who set it up said pro golfers use it because it is so realistic. There were more than a hundred courses to choose from. So I've been in the rough on courses all over the world!

'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.'

Fortunately for himself, Leicester, and now England, he has football.