Leicester City

Lore & Background

The club was founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse F.C., before becoming Leicester City in 1919, coinciding with Leicester gaining city status. They moved to Filbert Street in 1891, were elected to the Football League in 1894, and moved to the Walkers Stadium in 2002, renamed King Power Stadium in 2011. Leicester have won seven major trophies: one Premier League, one FA Cup, three League Cups, and two FA Community Shields. Their 2015–16 Premier League title win attracted global attention; prior to that, their highest league finish was second place in the 1928–29 First Division. The club's longest top-flight spell was 1957–1969, during which they reached three FA Cup finals and first competed in Europe. They have since had six more European campaigns, reaching the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2016–17, winning the FA Cup in 2021, and reaching the UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finals in 2021–22. Leicester won the League Cup in 1964, 1997, and 2000, and were finalists in 1964–65 and 1998–99.

In Their Own Story

The away end at the King Power Stadium on a midweek Tuesday in March 2016. The floodlights hum. A young lad in a slightly too-large blue shirt presses his face against the advertising boards, breath fogging the plastic, because he cannot see the pitch from his seat. Around him, the away supporters chant something about a fox and a city, their voices raw from the cold. On the pitch, a midfielder in the number 8 shirt — the one they all know by name now, the one who runs more than anyone else in the league — collects the ball near the halfway line, shields it with his shoulder, and launches a diagonal pass that splits the defence. The striker, the one from the non-league, the one who was a free agent four years ago, is already running. The crowd noise shifts, a low roar building like a tide. The ball reaches his feet in the box. He doesn't celebrate yet. He never celebrates until the net moves. And when it does, when the leather hits the back of the mesh and the keeper's arms drop, the away end detonates. The lad at the advertising boards is screaming, actually screaming, and the stranger next to him has a hand on his back, steadying him. Sixty-six years. And here, in a cold Tuesday in a city that the football world had written off, it is over. It is finally, impossibly over.

Reader's Guide

Leicester City currently play in EFL League One. Their home ground is the King Power Stadium. The club's most famous achievement is winning the Premier League in 2015–16. Key managers in their history include Peter Hodge, Willie Orr, Dave Halliday, Matt Gillies, and Martin O'Neill.

Did You Know?

• Leicester City were originally called Leicester Fosse F.C. when founded in 1884.
• The club's record win is 13–0 against Notts Olympic in an FA Cup qualifying match.
• Leicester's record defeat is 12–0 against Nottingham Forest.
• The club's longest period in the top division was 12 years from 1957 to 1969.
• Leicester are one of only five clubs to have won all three major domestic trophies since 2000.