Mail Sport with the help of our readers is on a mission to find the greatest player of all-time at each of the 20 Premier League clubs.
Today it’s the turn to look at the legends of Leicester City, from Arthur Rowley and World Cup winner Gordon Banks to through to Jamie Vardy and his 5,000-1 Premier League title winners.
And once you’ve made up your mind who is all the best-ever, it’s time to vote…
Leicester were responsible for one of the greatest sporting stories ever told when they won the Premier League in 2016 but there is far more to The Foxes history than that.
Arthur Rowley is one of England’s greatest goalscorers from any era, his 434 goals an all-time league record, and arguably his best period came at Leicester for whom he notched 265 times in 321 appearances.
Rowley signed for Leicester for a club record £14,000 in 1950 and went on to average 33 goals a season at Filbert Street. He twice led the team to promotion and hit four hat-tricks in scoring 44 league goals in 1956/57 – still a club best.
Former Leicester forward Arthur Rowley is one of England ‘s greatest goalscorers from any era
Legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks made nearly 300 appearances for Leicester
Banks is best known for his time as England’s No 1, including a superb save from Pele in 1970
Leicester became a formidable cup side in the 1960s but were beaten in the FA Cup final three times at Wembley – 1961, 1963 and 1969.
Goalkeeper Gordon Banks played in the first two and was generally considered the best No1 in the world when England lifted the World Cup in 1966. Incredibly, the club did let him go to Stoke City however because they had another exceptional young talent coming up behind him – Peter Shilton.
Banks and hometown hero Graham Cross did win a trophy however, the 1964 League Cup, when they defeated Stoke City 4-3 on aggregate when the competition was settled over two legs.
Cross is the only Leicester player to have turned out 600 times for the club. He played against Atletico Madrid on his 18th birthday in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1961, and stayed at Filbert Street until 1975.
Another local lad made good was Gary Lineker who joined City from school in 1977 and scored 103 goals before joining Everton in 1985 as an England international.
Lineker’s pace and opportunism made him a deadly marksman but he also loved the club dearly, a regular Filbert Street-goer as a kid with his Dad and grand-dad. When
Leicester won their shock title in 2016, Lineker fulfilled a promise to present Match of the Day in his underpants.
Leicester rediscovered their love for knockout football by winning the League Cup again in 1997 and 2000 under Martin O’Neill.
Gary Lineker scored 103 goals before joining Everton in 1985 as an England international
Steve Walsh had already been at the club for a decade when he tasted the glory at Wembley. ‘I have to thank Bryan Hamilton for first taking me because he’d been my manager at Wigan,’ he acknowledges.
He became a cult hero with Foxes fans and served the club both as a centre-half and striker.
Muzzy Izzet was also part of the O’Neill team who described him as ‘one of the finest players ever to don a Leicester City shirt.’
Izzet provided the midfield craft to complement the physical strengths Leicester had and though London-born, he played international football for Turkey through his parentage.
Emile Heskey was a powerful centre-forward whose late equaliser in the 1997 final against Middlesbrough forced a replay that City won. Heskey signed for Liverpool a month after helping Leicester beat Tranmere to win their second trophy in four seasons.
The 2016 Premier League triumph has gone down in folklore and it was backed up by a strong run in the Champions League and lifting the FA Cup in 2021.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was one of only two title winners who also started the cup final win against Chelsea though Wes Morgan also came off the bench at Wembley in what his final game for the club.
Premier League icon Emile Heskey starred for Leicester before going on to play for Liverpool
Morgan was captain of the Premier League heroes when he built an imposing relationship in the heart of defence with Robert Huth.
Not many players could stay at a club only one season and still be in the conversation for their greatest player but N’Golo Kante’s contribution to Leicester’s title win was immense.
Signed as an unknown from Caen, Kante became one of the world’s leading holding midfield players virtually overnight. His ability to read the game and break up attacks created one of football’s wittier jokes: ‘71% of the earth is covered by water. N’Golo Kanté covers the rest.’
Though Leicester had many candidates for the PFA’s Player of the Year, it went to Riyad Mahrez, the Algerian international winger whose dribbling and crossing skills were integral to the success of Claudio Ranieri’s team.
Jamie Vardy was a key member of the Leicester squad which won the Premier League title
Vardy, who had signed for Leicester from non-league football, is still at the King Power after 12 years
Whilst Kante joined Chelsea after winning the league, Mahrez stayed an extra season for their Champions League campaign and scored twice in Leicester’s opening fixture against Bruges – setting the tone for a run to the quarter-final where they were narrowly eliminated by Atletico Madrid.
Leicester’s promotion last season gives them another crack at the Premier League and new manager Steve Cooper will still have one of the title heroes to call on – Jamie Vardy.
Vardy, who had signed for Leicester from non-league football, is still at the King Power after 12 years and will forever be associated with the club for his exploits.
He scored in 11 consecutive matches when Leicester won the league and won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2020, the only Englishman other than Harry Kane to have achieved that over the last two decades.
To select your greatest Leicester City player, click on the voting button or email [email protected] if you want to choose someone not on the shortlist.
We will reveal the results of the greatest all-time player for all 20 Premier League clubs before the start of the 2024/25 season.