Leicester City are a football club from Leicester, England, who will be playing in the Premier League for the 2024/25 season.
Known as The Foxes, Leicester play their home matches at the King Power Stadium. They are most famous for winning the 2015/16 Premier League under Claudio Ranieri after they had been widely tipped as relegation candidates before the season began.
Leicester became a consistently competitive force in the Premier League, spurred on by goals from Jamie Vardy and the tactical astuteness of manager Brendan Rodgers.
Under Rodgers, Leicester twice missed out on Champions League qualification with final-day defeats - finishing fifth in 2019/20 and 2020/21. But he did get his side over the line in the 2021 FA Cup as the club won the famous competition for the first time in their history.
They reached their first ever European semi-final in the 2021/22 season, with a run to the last four of the inaugural Europa Conference League before losing to Roma.
Leicester struggled and after a winless run of six games, including defeats against relegation rivals Southampton and Crystal Palace, the board sacked Rodgers in April 2023.
In a surprise move, former Aston Villa and Norwich manager Dean Smith was brought in as interim manager to take charge for the final eight games of the season.
Under Enzo Maresca, Leicester secured their return to the Premier League the following season, after securing the Championship title in late April 2024. But the Italian left for Chelsea less than a month later.
Former Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper was named as the new manager in June 2024, but was sacked after only five months in the role.
Former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy was named as Cooper's replacement on November 30, 2024.
In 1907/08, Leicester finished as Second Division runners-up and gained promotion to the top flight of English soccer for the first time. They did not settle well and were relegated at the first attempt, suffering a club record 12-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest along the way.
In 1928/29, Leicester finished second in the First Division, losing the league title to The Wednesday (later renamed Sheffield Wednesday) by a single point.
After Arthur Rowley's 44 goals helped Leicester secure promotion to the top flight in 1957, they remained there for 12 years - the longest stint in the division in the Foxes' history.
Under the guidance of manager Matt Gillies and his assistant Bert Johnson, Leicester reached the FA Cup final in both 1961 and 1963. The first of those finals saw them lose 2-0 to double winners Tottenham Hotspur. Two years later, they went down 3-1 to Manchester United despite a goal from Ken Keyworth.
Leicester represented England in the 1961/62 European Cup Winners' Cup. The following season, they led the First Division over the British winter thanks to their superb form on icy and frozen pitches. The Leicester team of this era earned the nickname The Ice Kings. Leicester ultimately finished fourth in the league.
In 1964, Gillies led Leicester to their first major trophy, the League Cup. They had lost the previous year's final 3-2 on aggregate to Chelsea, but this time, they beat Stoke 4-3.
Gillies resigned in November 1968 and was succeeded by Frank O'Farrell. Despite reaching the 1969 FA Cup final, which they lost 1-0 to Manchester City, Leicester were relegated.
Leicester spent much of the next three decades yo-yoing between divisions. They went 33 years between 1964 and 1997 without a major trophy, but the emergence of legendary England striker Gary Lineker in the late 1970s and early 1980s gave Leicester fans something to shout about.
Lineker scored 95 league goals in 194 appearances for Leicester between 1978 and 1985. He then moved on to Everton and later Barcelona, Tottenham and Nagoya Grampus.
Martin O'Neill took over as Leicester City manager in 1995. He won promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs in his first season and this proved to be a sign of things to come.
Three years later, a brace from Matt Elliott saw Leicester beat Tranmere Rovers 2-1 to win the trophy again under O'Neill.
Leicester were relegated to League One in 2008 under Ian Holloway, just four years after they had last been dumped out of the Premier League.
Holloway left by mutual consent at the end of the 2007/08 season and was replaced by Nigel Pearson, who won immediate promotion back to the Championship.
Leicester made two play-offs over the next four seasons but failed to get promotion to the Premier League on both attempts. Under Pearson, the Foxes lost the 2009/10 play-off semi-final against Cardiff City on penalties.
After Pearson left to manage Hull City, Leicester went through stints under Paulo Sousa and Sven-Goran Eriksson before Pearson returned in 2011. He led Leicester to another play-off in 2012/13, but they lost in the semi-finals to Watford following Anthony Knockaert's late penalty miss.
Leicester City won seven of their last nine league games in the 2014/15 season under Pearson to pull off a sensational escape from relegation, which had seemed all but certain.
Pearson was controversially replaced by Claudio Ranieri ahead of the 2015/16 campaign. Ultimately, it proved to be a masterstroke. Inspired by the form of striker Jamie Vardy, winger Riyad Mahrez and midfielder N'Golo Kante, Ranieri led the Foxes to the Premier League title despite odds of 5000/1 at the start of the season.
Kante left for Chelsea after the season ended and Mahrez moved to Manchester City ahead of the 2018/19 campaign. However, Vardy stayed to lead the line for Leicester in a new era.
Ranieri lost his job during a difficult 2016/17 season. After Claude Puel steadied the ship during his stint in charge, Brendan Rodgers became Leicester manager in February 2019.
On October 27, 2018, shortly after take-off from the King Power Stadium following a match against West Ham United, a helicopter crash killed five people including Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, also known as Khun Vichai.
His consortium had purchased Leicester eight years earlier and led them from the Championship to the top of the Premier League. Khun Vichai was honoured throughout the soccer fraternity following his tragic passing.
In May 2021, Leicester City won the FA Cup for the first time in the club's history after beating Chelsea 1-0 in the final.
Belgian midfielder, and man-of-the match, Youri Tielemans scored a fantastic long-range cracker to secure the victory, but the Foxes were also indebted to goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel for several crucial saves.
They followed this up by beating Premier League winners Manchester City in the Community Shield on August 8, 2021. Kelechi Iheanacho scored the only goal of the game late on from the penalty spot.
The landscape of the club changed in the summer of 2022, with financial constraints seeing a number of players leave and their replacements were not of a similar calibre.
Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha acknowledged the impact of Covid had a serious effect on the club's finances, with summer cutbacks meaning that Rodgers was unable to significantly strengthen his squad.
They started the 2022/23 campaign terribly, losing six of their first seven games, before picking up form and heading towards mid-table.
However, a run of six games, including defeats against relegation rivals Southampton and Crystal Palace, proved too much and the board sacked Rodgers in April 2023.
Rodgers' replacement Dean Smith was unable to prevent relegation after taking charge for the final eight games.
Former Manchester City assistant manager Enzo Maresca took the managerial reins in June 2023.
He swiftly steered Leicester to the top of the Championship, claiming the manager of the month trophy in August, October and December.
Despite stumbling towards the end of the campaign, Leicester secured the Championship title after a 3-0 win at Preston on April 29, with a game to spare in the 2023/24 season
The 37-year-old Vardy scored twice against Preston taking his tally for the league campaign to 18.
But that was it for Maresca after just one season at Leicester, and in June 2024 he was named as the new head coach of Chelsea.
On June 20, 2024, former Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper took the helm at Leicester.
Cooper took the job with a possible points deduction hanging over Leicester and the threat of having to sell players to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules.
But after just 12 Premier League games, Cooper was surprisingly sacked on November 24, 2024 after a 2-1 at home to Chelsea left the club 16th in the table.
Leicester conceded 23 times in the Premier League under Cooper, the third highest in the league behind Wolves (28) and Southampton (24).
Former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy was named as Cooper's replacement on November 30, 2024.
The East Midlands derby with Nottingham Forest is widely viewed as Leicester's primary grudge match.
The city of Leicester is widely known for the Leicester Tigers rugby team, arguably the most prestigious rugby union side in the country. However, in recent years, their soccer club has gained fans from all over the world, largely due to their 2015/16 Premier League triumph.
Leicester have supporters groups across various continents and are also famous for the Foxes Pride organisation, which works with the LGBT community and club supporters.
Leicester City are the 23rd most valuable football club in the world according to Forbes, with a value of $781 million as of May 2023.
Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, the son of the deceased Khun Vichai and current CEO and chairman of King Power, is Leicester City's chairman and in 2021 had a net worth of $2.15billion according to Forbes.
West Ham United will hope to make it back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time in nearly a year when they welcome Leicester City on Thursday (2000 GMT)
Leicester travel to West Ham on Thursday night in a desperate search for points in their fight against relegation and with head coach Ruud van Nistelrooy's job on the line (2000 GMT).
Leicester City will be desperate to claim a much-needed win on Friday night (2000 GMT) when they play host to Brentford in the Premier League.
Arsenal can close Liverpool down to just four points if they can get the better of Leicester City this Saturday afternoon (1230 GMT).
Ruud van Nistelrooy returns to Old Trafford looking to compound Man United’s issues when his Leicester City attempt to cause a big FA Cup upset this Friday night (2000 GMT).
Just 12 matches into the new season, Leicester City have made the bold decision to part ways with manager Steve Cooper.
Leicester manager Steve Cooper is looking forward to his side's second Premier League game of the season.