Leicester City and Vardy against the World

Nine years ago, Leicester City began its unique triumph through the Premier League and became the greatest surprise champion of all time in the English top division in the 2015/2016 season. However, the truth of the Vardy fairytale also includes the fact that Leicester in 2023 became the second Premier League champion ever to be relegated. Now the 'Foxes' are back and Jamie Vardy is still the cult figure around the King Power Stadium. They have maintained their outsider charm – and this feeling alone is worth a football trip to Leicester City. Vardy and Co against the rest of the world – or?

It was a remarkable statement from Jamie Vardy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the legendary striker made an unusual confession. "Leave Leicester? Never!" wrote James Richard Gill, known as Jamie Vardy, on January 6, 2021, "they wanted me when no one else did, I will never disappoint them." Word.

Jamie Vardy has never disappointed. With 194 goals in 474 competitive matches, the former convicted striker became Leicester City's all-time top scorer.

He scored 24 goals in 36 matches during the championship year and was rightly named England's "Footballer of the Year" in 2016.

This season (As of: November 22, 2024), his goal tally stands at 4 goals from 10 Premier League matches. Not bad for a 37-year-old striker Methuselah, as it's still enough to make him the team’s top Premier League scorer...

Returnees Leicester Faces a Tough Time in the Premier League

On the sidelines – another piece of irony in Leicester – stands the former coach of their arch-rivals. Steve Cooper replaced Italian promotion coach Enzo Maresca (now FC Chelsea) on July 1, 2024.

In 2022 – another historic piece from the East Midlands – Cooper led Nottingham Forest back to the Premier League after a 23-year absence via the playoffs back into the Premier League.

The Welshman has not yet been able to truly ignite the team; Leicester has only won two games and will likely have to fight until the last matchday for the Premier League ticket to ride for next season.

In 2023, staying in the league wasn’t possible. In 2022, Leicester reached the semifinals of the new Europa Conference League but had to follow the bitter path to the 2nd English league (Championship) as the second Premier League champion after Blackburn Rovers, who triumphed in 1995. The turning point was the World Cup break in November/December 2022:

After the Premier League restart, Vardy and Co. won only 2 of 22 matches and were already out of control of their league status before the 38th matchday. The departure of goalkeeper idol Kasper Schmeichel also weighed heavily.

Football trips to Leicester City should be planned this season anyway, as Jamie Vardy's contract, which was once brought from Fleetwood Town for 1.24 million euros from football obscurity, expires on June 30, 2025.

Vardy, the Last Championship Player from 2016

Will the last remaining championship hero from 2016 hang on for another year? I wouldn’t rule anything out with Leicester City.

Leicester City – founded in 1884, the club had little on its letterhead except for three League Cup wins (1954, 1997, 2000) for a long time. The club from the 330,000-strong city, 150 kilometers north of London, had never been champions before 2016.

One match still haunts me today: 1-2 in the FA Cup against the no-name club Wycombe Wanderers with previously unemployed striker Roy Essandoh in March 2001. Leicester City played as though the goal of football was to hit the scoreboard in the historic Filbert Street stadium...

The Ball That Fell From the Sky

Even in the championship year 2015/2016, I editorially followed many of the "Foxes'" games. Like the match against FC Liverpool (2-0) with the ball that fell from the sky. It was Vardy's incredible long-range goal to make it 1-0 against "The Reds". "Mignolet (Cedric Mignolet, Liverpool goalkeeper, ed.) could only sit and wonder about what had just happened," the Daily Mail wrote about this wonderful strike. That was on February 2, 2016. A goal like that you only score with the complete confidence of a league leader.

They really believed it in Leicester probably four days later, when City stormed the Etihad Stadium and beat the "Sky Blues" from Manchester 3-1. Former German international Robert Huth with 2 goals and Riyad Mahrez were outstanding. "We’re gonna win the League" (“We will be champions”), chanted the Leicester fans in Manchester.

"Blue done it," said The Sun on May 3, 2016, when a draw from the chasing Tottenham Hotspur in the London derby against FC Chelsea (2-2) handed Leicester the title. The champions celebrated in style – at Jamie Vardy's house. Only the fan song to the cult striker, "Jamie Vardy’s having a party, bring your Vodka and your Charlie" (which translates to: "Jamie Vardy’s having a party, bring your Vodka and your Coke.") was not taken literally. Luckily not.

5,000: 1

The images from the house championship party went around the world, the most unlikely championship in Premier League history – with the odds at 5,000:1 at the beginning – was complete.

Leicester was not a one-hit-wonder. The following year, with championship coach Claudio Ranieri, who was once called "Neary Man" (the eternal almost-champion coach) by Gary Lineker, who had trained at City, Leicester stormed to the Champions League quarterfinals.

The next highlight came in 2021: In the middle of the COVID-19 era, with 20,000 fans allowed in Wembley, Leicester City won the FA Cup 1-0 against FC Chelsea, with a goal from Youri Tielemans.

At that time, some of the championship heroes were still playing for the "Foxes": Kasper Schmeichel (now Celtic Glasgow), Wes Morgan (retired, most recently at Nottingham Forest), or Marc Albrighton (retiring in 2024).

They eventually left, but Jamie Vardy stayed. The 2018 World Cup participant is not the only favorite at King Power Stadium.

There’s also a cult figure in the stands. It’s drummer Lee “Wide Load” Jobber, who has been setting the rhythm for the fans since 2004. The hardcore fan, who says he spent 800 euros to have the outlines of his 150 tattoos redrawn after the championship.

He is somewhat indispensable. When his drum was broken in 2009, Leicester lost three times in a row…

When does Leicester City play against FC Liverpool in 2024/2025?

Leicester City will play against "The Reds" two more times this season, once on "Boxing Day," England's football day on the second Christmas holiday (December 26, 2024, 9:00 PM), at Anfield. The return match on the 33rd matchday (April 19, 2025) at the King Power Stadium could be decisive. 

When is the East Midlands Derby against Nottingham Forest?

Nottingham won the first leg of this derby 3-1 in Leicester. The "Tricky Trees" will host the rival Leicester City on the 36th and third-to-last matchday (May 10, 2025) at the City Ground.