Welcome to the Soccer Tavern, where we’re discussing the history, culture, and philosophy of the beautiful game. My name is Dave and we’re talking about Leicester City Football Club’s history in this video. Pull up a seat and let’s start the discussion.
Leicester City FC is located in the south central part of the city of Leicester. Leicester is located in the central part of England in the United Kingdom. The club currently play in the Premier League and its home ground is called the King Power Stadium, which opened in 2002 and holds 32,262 people.
Origin
The club was founded in 1884 by former students mainly from the Wyggeston school who wanted to keep playing soccer outside of the academic institution. The group met in a garden shed behind the Fosse Road House and established the club’s name as Leicester Fosse Football Club. In 1919, after the end of World War I, the club was in financial trouble and were overtaken by new owners. The new owners dropped the Fosse from the name and added city to appeal to a wider fan base. The club became Leicester City FC and have been so ever since.
Nicknames
In the club’s early days, it went through a number of different nicknames including The Fossils, The Royal Knuts, Hunters, Sockers, and Tanners but none of them really stuck.
In 1948, the club introduced a fox into their crest to be worn on match day kits due to the region’s association with fox hunting. Though this happened in the late 40s, the club didn’t officially adopt and embrace the foxes nickname until the 1980s. But they’ve been using it ever since.
Crest
The club has more or less used the same crest since 1991 with some slight branding updates over the years.
It’s a relatively simple crest with a fox head in the middle of a cinquefoil flower surrounded by the club’s name in a circle.
The flower comes from the city of Leicester’s coat of arms. And it can actually be traced back to the middle ages with the first Earl of Leicester, Robert De Bellomonte, using the cinquefoil in his coat of arms.
And the fox comes from the strong hunting tradition in the area for centuries.
Pretty straightforward.
Important Events
I’d like to discuss 3 important events in the club’s history, all of which have occurred in this millennium.
First – on October 21, 2002 Leicester City officially went into administration or bankruptcy. The club had recently built a new stadium, been relegated from the Premier League and was over £30M in debt. On that same day however, a consortium of investors led by former player Gary Lineker and local businessman David Ross agreed to buy the club out of administration. After 4 months of negotiations, the club came out of administration on February 13, 2003. The club has since changed ownership 2 more times but without this intervention to bring the club out of administration, the club may not exist today.
The next event happened a little over a decade later. On April 3, 2015, the Foxes sat at the bottom of the Premier League table, 7 points from safety with 9 matches to play. The club picked up a win the next day to climb into 19th and proceeded to go on an incredibly improbable run of 7 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw to end the season in 14th place and maintain its place in the Premier League. After the run, the club was hit with a scandal that summer that saw the removal of Nigel Pearson as manager and Claudio Ranieri appointed as the new manager in July 2015. Ranieri had tons of experience, managing at many big clubs but was considered old and incapable of winning domestic league titles after many second place finishes from his squads.
And that brings us to our third event I’d like to discuss. Leicester began the 2015-2016 season as 5000-1 odds to win the title. With the poor performance the previous season and the turmoil the club experienced in the offseason that we just discussed, even the loftiest of fan expectations had the club finishing mid-table at best. Incredibly, all the stars aligned as Leicester rode a wave of undiscovered or underappreciated players along with nearly every player hitting peak form and limited injuries to win the Premier League title. The story is still insane to believe but on Monday May 2, 2016 Chelsea FC drew 2-2 against Tottenham, which meant Leicester City Football Club were Premier League champions. The club was presented with their trophy and honored at a ceremony that included Andrea Bocelli singing before their match on May 7, 2016. A date which will forever remain in club folklore.
Supporters
For decades, the club has run onto the pitch while the Post Horn Gallop has played. The song was originally used to announce the arrival of mail coaches in the 19th century. The tune as it relates to the club, dates back to at least the 1930s when a man played the song on a lone bugle.
This tradition has continued over the years and makes for a unique entrance to the field for the club and its players. And it was all started by a supporter almost a century ago.
Noteworthy Players
I’d like to highlight 4 players in this section.
Gordon Banks was one of the greatest goalkeepers in history. He won the 1966 World Cup as England’s goalkeeper and is also known for making the ‘save of the century’ on Pele in 1970 by that point he was no longer on Leicester.
Gary Lineker – started his career with Leicester City having graduated from the academy. He went on to have a great career and is a famous pundit for the Premier League.
Riyad Mahrez – currently on Leicester city at the time of recording was the first African player ever to win the Pro Footballer’s Association Player of the Year award and remains the only Leicester player to have won the award.
Jamie Vardy – joined Leicester in 2012 from Fleetwood Town. Vardy’s story is one of perseverance and determination as he played non-league soccer in England into his early 20s. Most people in England are written off by that age, but he kept working, got his move to Leicester and has gone on to score boatloads of goals in the Premier League, as well as play for the English National team.
Also, quick shoutout to N’Golo Kante who was only with Leicester for a season but I love his work ethic, professionalism, and his overall game. I think he’s one of the best defensive midfielders in the world right now, so special bonus 5th player.
Noteworthy Managers
I’d like to discuss 4 managers in this section.
(1) Matt Gillies is the club’s longest ever serving manager and guided the club to its first ever major trophy (the 1964 League Cup). He also led the club to their most ever cup finals.
(2) Martin O’Neill won 2 League Cups and reached another final as he managed the club in the late 90s and early 2000s. It was one of the best run’s in the club’s history.
(3) Nigel Pearson helped guide the club through the 2nd division and kept them in the Premier League against all odds in that 2014-2015 season we discussed earlier. He was fired that summer after a scandal and was replaced by the next manager I wanted to discuss.
(4) We couldn’t end without mentioning Claudio Rainieri. He was manager for the club’s most historic and triumphant season. He took over a club likely to be battling relegation and with 5,000 to 1 odds of winning the premier league. He shocked everyone and managed the club to be Premier League champions in one of the most unlikliest of stories in sports history. Still unbelieveable to this day.
Rivals
No rivals currently in the premier league, but Leicester’s biggest rivals are: Nottingham Forest, Derby County, & Coventry City
All 3 clubs are from the Midlands, which is where Leicester is located as well.
Nottingham Forest are Leicester’s biggest rivals. Beyond just being in the same physical area, the rivalry goes all the way back to a match from 1909 when Forest won 12-0 over Leicester. That remains Leicester’s worst ever defeat but can be explained a bit as reportedly most of the players were hungover from a player’s wedding the night before. The clubs have played over 100 times in their existence and are intense rivals.
Leicester’s rivalry with Derby was also aided in recent decades with big victories for Leicester in the 1990s in the Promotion playoffs and Premier League. This was followed in the mid-2000s by big victories for Derby. The rivalry has faded a bit with Leicester becoming a stable Premier League club and Derby slogging it out in the Championship. The fans still keep the rivalry going though, especially when the clubs meet in cup competitions.
And Leicester’s last rival is Coventry City. In the first decade of the 2000s, the two clubs played in the same division and had a number of fierce matches against one another. The two towns are separated by less than 20 miles and the rivalry is called the M69 Derby in honor of the road connecting the two towns. The reality is both clubs consider other clubs as their main rivals, so this rivalry isn’t quite as intense as others. But it’s still worth mentioning.
Stats & Records
The stats and records we’re about to discuss are as of March 2018 when I am recording this video.
Leicester have spent 51 seasons in the top flight in their history.
The club has 4 major trophies including:
- 1 Premier League title
- 3 League Cups
The Foxes’ record first team league appearance holder is Adam Black with 528 appearances.
The club’s record goal scorer is Arthur Chandler with 259 goals.
The Leicester’s record transfer purchase was Islam Slimani from Sporting Lisbon in Portugal on August 31, 2016 for about £29M .
And the club’s record transfer sale was N’Golo Kante to Chelsea FC on July 16, 2016 for about £30M.
One last interesting fact about the club: Leicester have won the 2nd division title an English record 7 times in their history.
So there you have it… a bit of history on Leicester City Football Club. Let’s continue the discussion in the comments section below this video.
Thanks for stopping by the Soccer Tavern. Hope to see you again sometime soon. Cheers.
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