Foxes and Box Offices: Casting the Jamie Vardy film

Six years detached from toiling in the eighth tier of English football with Stocksbridge Park Steels FC, Jamie Vardy is tasting Premier League glory with Leicester City.

A rags to riches story of a footballer on the verge of starring for his hometown Sheffield Wednesday before being shown the door as a 16-year-old, prompting his move to non-league minnows Stocksbridge and a £30-a-week cheque barely worth the paper it was written on.

There are few tropes as tired as the use of fairy tale, but it applies to Vardy's meteoric rise. From playing for a pittance to starring for both the upstart Foxes and England, the rough-around-the-edges South Yorkshire-born goal-machine is deserving of a Hollywood tribute.

British-born screenwriter and producer Adrian Butchart appears slated to be involved in the pending film approaching its infantile stages.

"It's the kind of story that if we made it up, people wouldn’t believe it," Butchart told The Sun.

"It’s amazing to think he was playing non league football and making medical splints for a living until so recently before breaking the record. It is the kind of role actors dream of."

With that in mind, here's a collection of actors who would perfectly portray the principle roles in the Jamie Vardy biopic:

Jamie Vardy (Michael Fassbender)

Hollywood loves the underdog story, and few tales in modern sport merit a film as much as Jamie Vardy.

A star from humble roots, Michael Fassbender assumes the role of the Foxes' goal-machine from non-league obscurity to winning the top flight. Along the way, Fassbender channels his inner Sheffield lad to stellar results.

The camera pans to a solemn Fassbender in his Stocksbridge training trackies eating a chip butty while he counts his £30 weekly wages before the scene fades to him spilling his chardonnay on the Graham Norton Show, Premier League winner's medal draped around his neck. And the Oscar goes to ...

Claudio Ranieri (Michael Caine)

In his best Romanesco dialect, Michael Caine pulls off the perfect Claudio Ranieri in a seminal scene where the Italian gaffer considers how not to rotate his squad, ever.

One of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award in every decade from 1960-2000 (the other being Jack Nicholson), Caine, 83, had to wait until 1986's "Hannah and Her Sisters" to finally win an Oscar. Ranieri, 64, first managed in 1986, and has had to wait until 2016 to win his first league title.

The calm source to Vardy's impassioned displays, the two share a celebratory pizza together as Ranieri tells his star striker that the sky's the limit. The camera pans skyward towards a full moon that Robert Huth handles with his German mitts as referee Michael Clattenburg turns a blind eye.

Riyad Mahrez (Zayn Malik)

Two Muslim stars who have become the face of their respective demographics, former One Direction member shocks critics with a stirring performance as PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez.

In tattered trainers, Malik plays five-a-side on the streets of Sarcelles as a teenager, only for the camera to spin 180 degrees, as Mahrez turns Chelsea full-back Cesar Azpilicueta inside-out for a stunning goal.

Like Vardy's emergence, Mahrez's is one that beats miraculous odds, with the two sharing a moment on stage at the PFA Awards to cap-off one of football's veritable fairytales.

Nigel Pearson (Vinnie Jones)

Like Vardy, former Foxes boss Nigel Pearson is a boisterous character that helped turn a club from lower-tier fodder to champions.

Despite being replaced by Ranieri, Pearson, played by former Wimbledon FC hard-man Vinnie Jones, played a massive role in the striker's development. Pearson signed Vardy from Fleetwood Town, and convinces the goal-machine to fight his inner demons and curb his penchant for the northern delight of chips and gravy.

Harry Kane (Ryan Gosling)

Two years ago, Vardy and fellow goal-machine Harry Kane sat on Leicester's bench side by side as Watford stormed back for a miraculous promotion playoff win over the Foxes.

The attack pairing now form England's best chances for silverware in decades, leading the line for the Three Lions in the Euro 2016 tourney just months after topping the Premier League scoring charts.

A friendship forged during times of lower-league hardship, Vardy and Tottenham star Kane represent the meteoric rise of a pairing of cinema's most stately, with Gosling and Fassbender forming a silver-screen bromance.

Shinji Okazaki (John Cho)

After video of a racist expletive-laden row at a casino emerged in the summer, Vardy's character was put into question. The striker promptly apologised for his behaviour and for the bigoted term directed at a Japanese man.

In steps Japanese international and Foxes teammate Shinji Okazaki, who in a heartwarming scene, describes the plight of minorities living in the British isles as Vardy looks on with remorse painted on his visage. Conflict-cum-solution plays a vital role in all films, and the Jamie Vardy story is no different.

Becky Nicholson (Michelle Keegan)

Behind every sporting hero is a great woman, and Vardy's missus Becky Nicholson fills the mold admirably, propping-up the Leicester striker during periods of self-doubt.

Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) and Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) had Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) in "Bull Durham," Rocky (Sly Stallone) had Adrian (Talia Shire), Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) was buoyed by Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey) in "Hoosiers" and Vardy (Fassbender) is backed by Nicholson (Michelle Keegan).

Keegan, who starred on Coronation Street from 2008-14, is well versed in football having married former well-travelled lower-league left-back Mark Wright.

Jon Moss (John Heard)

From "Home Alone" to "The Jamie Vardy Story," character actor John Heard plays embattled Premier League ref Jon Moss.

Months after sending Vardy off against West Ham for a dive, Moss and the England star cross paths at the local off-licence. Vardy pays for Moss' prawn cocktail crisps as the two put their differences behind them.

Vardy walks off into the sunset, with one eye on next season's Champions League campaign, the other on a blockbuster sequel.

Also starring: Wes Morgan (Terry Crews), Robert Huth (David Hasselhoff), Roy Hodgson (Colm Meaney), N'Golo Kante (Kevin Hart)