18+ | Commercial Content | T&Cs apply | Begambleaware.org
Over the years, there have been many players who have made the successful transition from non-league football to big clubs. There have also been several players who have gone on to feature even in the Premier League after having played in non-league football. This ultimately leads to the question of the best profits that has been made by nonleague clubs. The top transfers from non-league football that gave the biggest profits for their former clubs are:
Matt Tubbs
The centre forward was signed by Crawley Town from Salisbury for around £100,000 during the 2010-11 campaign. The Scottish footballer had been something of an icon at Salisbury after playing for seven years at the club and making more than 240 appearances. After the switch to Crawley, however, Tubbs would go on to get a lot of attention from clubs across England. Eventually, it was Bournemouth who registered an interest during the summer of 2012. He had previously been on loan at the club for the season when he was on the books of Salisbury. After being impressed with the progress shown by the striker, Bournemouth paid almost £1 million to sign him on a permanent basis. This represented a profit of almost £900,000.
Jamie Vardy
Jamie Vardy is one of the iconic names for a player who had success even though a significant chunk of his youth days was spent in non-league football. The striker had started his career with Sheffield Wednesday before being captured by Stocksbridge Park Steels in 2003. Vardy went on to make his debut for Stocksbridge Park Steels in 2007 before moving to Halifax Town in 2010. This move to non-league Halifax Town was a major turning point in his career. In a single campaign with the nonleague outfit, Vardy ended up scoring 26 goals in 37 matches. This sparked attention from across non-league football and Fleetwood Town made the offer of £170,000 for his signature at the start of the 2011-12 campaign. Little did Fleetwood Town realised that they had just picked up one of the future stars of English football at a significantly cheaper price. After just one season with Fleetwood, Vardy was making his presence felt in several leagues above.
Leicester City, who were still trying to get into the Premier League at that point, made an enquiry for his services at the start of the 2012-13 campaign. The two clubs ended up agreeing on a price of £1.25 million to hand Fleetwood a profit of more than £1 million. Despite such a price, Leicester were to have no regrets of having signed Vardy, who had just finished as the top scorer in Conference Premier. Vardy would go on to play an influential role in getting the club back to the Premier League and also winning the title against every expectation. Vardy is also going to be named as the Premier League’s Player of the Season in the 2015-16 campaign.