All about: Leicester City Football Club

This is an article all about the only professional football club in Leicestershire, known as Leicester City Football Club or "the Foxes". Read about the history of the club and its famous players, right up to the appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson.

Fosse Road 1884

Leicester City FC, or “the Foxes” as they are known, are a club with a long, colourful history, having been founded in 1884 before joining the Football league in 1890. The team started out playing on little more than a field near Fosse Road, before moving to the famous Filbert street in 1891. They played home football there for over a hundred years, until they relocated to their new home, The Walkers Stadium, a 32,500 all-seater stadium in 2002.

Famous names

Leicester City boasts a rich array of famous former players, such as World Cup winner Gordon Banks, Gary Lineker, Frank McLintock and fans' favourite, Turkish international Muzzy Izzet. Many famous names have also managed the club - Peter Taylor, David Pleat, current Scotland manager Craig Levein and even former player Frank McLintock have all taken the reins. None were as successful as Martin O’Neill, who not only guided them to Premier League promotion in the 1995- 96 season but won the League cup in 1997 and 2000. Ten managers have come and gone since O’Neill’s departure, but none have managed to match the success of the Irishman, although Nigel Pearson did win the League One title with the greatest win ratio of any Leicester manager. Their highest top flight finish though, still remains as the runners up in 1928 – 1929.

Sven Goran Eriksson

In 2010, the club managed to pull off something of a coup, by bringing former Lazio, Manchester City and England manager Sven Goran Eriksson to the club and with his arrival, the hope that Sven can add to the 17 major trophies he has won in his long and varied career. Eriksson took over from Paulo Sousa – who only had a disastrous three month period in charge – at a time when Leicester were in real danger of relegation, but under his stewardship, they slowly began to climb the table and a rich run of form saw them on the brink of a play off place before results began to stutter. They finally finished in a respectable 10th position.

The future

Perhaps due to his high profile, Eriksson has managed to attract such players as former England International Darius Vassell, Kyle Naughton and Yakubu to the club. If Sven can get his side playing at their best and with the addition of one or two signings in the summer, one can be upbeat about Leicester’s promotion chances next season.