Euro 2016 Daily: Jamie Vardy contract angers England; Zlatan Ibrahimovic's downbeat goodbye

Updated 23/06/2016 at 22:30 GMT

The first football-free day of Euro 2016 saw white-hot competition give way to England turmoil, a Wayne Rooney press conference and sad Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Roy Hodgson talks to Jamie Vardy

Image credit: Reuters

FRIDAY MORNING'S BIG STORIES

1-Vardy peeves England by signing new contract

There can have been few lower moments for Arsenal than being turned down by Leicester City's Jamie Vardy, but that's what has happened according to a surprisingly deadpan statement from the Premier League champions (yes, that really did happen).

Euro 2016

Rooney: Hodgson got it wrong at finals

01/08/2016 at 20:07

Leicester City have today (Thursday) agreed with the representatives of Jamie Vardy to extend the England international’s contract with the Premier League champions for a further four years. Both parties hope that this announcement will end recent speculation regarding Jamie’s future and confirm his long term commitment to Leicester City Football Club.

But the timing has not gone down well with the FA, who feel the striker's focus should be purely on Euro 2016. It seems unlikely Roy Hodgson would omit Vardy over this, but the fact that someone at the FA appears to have leaked their displeasure suggests this is not what England need ahead of the Iceland game.

Wayne Rooney speaks during a press conference

Image credit: Reuters

2-Wayne Rooney refuses to divulge Brexit verdict, not that keen on Northern Ireland

The first day of the tournament without football was a time to breathe, take a step back and reacquaint yourself with loved ones ostracised since the punishing Euro 2016 schedule started a fortnight ago.

But in a small corner of Chantilly, it was an opportunity for journalists to pester Wayne Rooney with questions he'd clearly rather not answer.

Elsewhere, Rooney twisted logic into an attractive fusilli shape as he tried to take positives from England's group struggles and consequent plunge into the Bracket of Death.

"In my eyes, the group games have been good because we could have got false hope if we'd won all of them 2-0 or 3-0."

In fact, we would have been in an even stronger position, entirely immune from the spectre of false hope, had we lost all three games.

He did say some other stuff, which you can access below, but there's literally nothing there you wouldn't expect.

[Rooney: We must be ruthless against Iceland]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic fait ses adieux sous le maillot suédois

Image credit: AFP

3-Zlatan Ibrahimovic makes surprisingly low-key international retirement

You might expect Zlatan Ibrahimovic's departure from the international stage to be one of the big stories of Euro 2016.

Great player, massive star, shameless self-promoter - Zlatan has everything for a spectacular goodbye, as seen by his self-effacing valedictory tweet on leaving PSG:

After a Euro 2016 campaign equally devoid of goals and success, he mustered just an Instagram picture of himself looking starved of service.

Sure, "I am Sweden" might sound conceited by most people's standards, but for Ibrahimovic this was a startlingly downbeat exit.

NO MATCHES THURSDAY OR FRIDAY **SADFACE**

ON THE GROUND

Miguel Delaney, in Paris, 2009 - recalling Ireland's last competitive meeting with France when Thierry Henry's handball denied the Irish a place at the World Cup:

As the gold ticker tape fell from the roof, the stadium PA began to play ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by the Black Eyed Peas came on. You could justifiably argue the song is bad enough as it is but, from that moment, it was utterly irredeemable for most Irish fans in the stadium. If you ask anyone who was there about it, the response is usually very similar: that f**king song. To them, it will always be associated with that moment. It will always be a poorly contrived attempted at celebration music, played while they were in mourning and trying to make sense of what had just happened. Oh, Irish people had a bloody feeling, alright, thank you Will.I.Am, but it wasn’t that this was a good night. This was a galling night, made all the worse by the fact Henry himself had the cheek to actually sit down beside an utterly despondent Richard Dunne and try and console him.