The term rollercoaster is overused in football, but when it comes to Leicester’s most recent history, it’s a perfect fit. From winning England’s most prestigious trophies and European journeys to scandals and relegation, Leicester City fans have squeezed a lifetime of memories into a single decade. Ten years on from Leicester’s 2014 promotion to the Premier League, Carter Smith recaps the highs and lows from football’s wildest ride.
May 2014
Leicester return to the Premier League after a 10-year absence, finishing top of the league with 102 points in the Championship. After leading the table since Boxing Day, promotion is secured with six games to spare. A slow-mo pitch invasion on the final game of the season follows a 1-0 win against Doncaster Rovers. City are back.
August 2014
The fight for survival begins with a 2-2 draw against Everton on the opening day of the season.
New signings include Brighton’s Leonardo Ulloa and Marc Albrighton, from Villa, on a free. But it’s the late-August capture of Champions League winner Esteban Cambiasso that makes the football world sit up and notice. To this day, many City fans can still barely believe it actually happened.
September 2014
Cambiasso inspires a famous 5-3 victory over Man United, when City become the first team to come back from a two-goal deficit against the Red Devils in the Premier League era.
December 2014
The Argentinian’s name on the team sheet is striking, but it’s not a guarantee of points. By Christmas – the traditional test of a relegation-haunted team’s progress – City have been propping up the table for weeks. They’re still down there by the end of March. They need a miracle.
April 2015
Incredibly, they get one. Starting with a win against West Ham, City embark on a remarkable run of form, winning seven out of nine games to complete the greatest of great escapes. Cambiasso takes his bow in a final-day demolition of QPR.
June 2015
City head off to Thailand on an end-of-season tour, but nobody expects the trouble that follows. Three development squad players – including the son of then-manager Nigel Pearson – take part in an alleged racist sex tape, which is leaked to the Sunday Mirror. City sack the trio. Pearson later follows them out the door, with the club saying the working relationship between him and the board was “no longer viable”.
July 2015
Pearson’s successor is unveiled: former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri, whose most recent role, as manager of Greece, ended in a defeat to the Faroe Islands. Gary Lineker, famously, is not impressed. ‘Claudio Ranieri?’ he tweets. ‘Really?’
2015-2016 season
With promises of pizza for clean sheets, and the shrewd introduction of N’Golo Kanté from Caen, Ranieri’s Foxes tap into the fine form which kept them up the season before.
November 2016
Jamie Vardy’s party is in full swing, and he breaks Ruud van Nistelrooy’s decade-old record for the most consecutive goals in Premier League games, helping Leicester sit top of the table at Christmas.
You know the rest. A fan-triggered earthquake and the Battle at the Bridge later, and the impossible has happened. Leicester City, the 5,000-1 underdogs, are Champions of England, finishing 10 points clear of the nearest challenger.
Greeted with a storm from the gods, Ranieri’s men are serenaded by Andrea Bocelli as they lift the Premier League trophy. For a week, the city feels like the capital of the world.
August 2016
Zlatan Ibrahimović rips up the script in the 2016 Community Shield when Man United beat Leicester 2-1 in the traditional curtain-raiser to the English top-flight football season.
In a harsh drop back to reality, the defending champions of England lose their first game of the season, away to newly promoted Hull City. A rocky start to the season sees them near the bottom of the table. But Foxes fans paint Europe blue as the club cruise through the group stages of the Champions League group, beating Club Brugge 3-0 in their first-ever game in Europe’s most prestigious competition.
February 2017
The footballing world is dismayed/appalled/angered when Claudio Ranieri is sacked only nine months after helping Leicester win the Premier League. Craig Shakespeare steps in to steady the ship and try to help Leicester progress through Europe.
Shakespeare’s dogs of war battle through to beat Sevilla 3-2 on aggregate, which sets up a quarter-finals clash with City’s European nemesis: Spanish giants Atletico Madrid.
There’s heartbreak in the Spanish capital when Leicester lose 1-0 away to Atletico because of a dodgy penalty call. Fans will try and convince you that it doesn’t bother them anymore. It does.
Back at the King Power, a Jamie Vardy goal isn’t enough as Diego Simeone’s men prove too much for the Foxes.
October 2018: tragedy strikes
The club’s trajectory is forever changed on October 27, 2018, when chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha dies in a helicopter crash along with four others.
The Foxes faithful show support to the family and club by leaving a sea of scarfs, flags and heartfelt messages at the King Power.
The man who gave Leicester so much gets an emotionally charged send off as Leicester win away 1-0 against Cardiff in their first game back after the tragedy.
February 2019
Following a couple of seasons of relative drift, Leicester appoint former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers.
2019-20 season
In a feisty first full season, which finishes in lockdown, the Northern Irishman steers Leicester to the semi-final of the EFL Cup, and a record-breaking 9-0 away win against Southampton. But his side finish fifth, agonisingly outside of the Champions League spots.
2020-21 season
City return to Europe. But after making it through the group stage of the Europa League, but they are knocked out in the round of 32 against Slavia Prague.
While battling on all fronts, an FA Cup-run led by Kelechi Iheanacho, sees Leicester beat Man United 3-1 at home and beat Southampton 1-0 at Wembley in the semi-final. They face the previous year’s finalists Chelsea in the final.
The footballing gods seem determined to help Leicester win as VAR cancels out a last-gasp goal by former Fox Ben Chilwell. Youri Tieleman’s screamer is the decider. In his final season, Wes Morgan is able to lift Leicester’s first FA Cup trophy.
2021-22 season
City lift the Community Shield after facing the blue side of Manchester. A last-minute penalty scored by Kelechi Iheanacho helps Leicester add another piece of silverware to the collection.
But cracks are starting to show in the Brendan Rodgers reign. An extremely late Spurs comeback leaves Leicester fans haunted every time they hit the 90th minute and the FA Cup defence ends with a 4-1 battering to local rivals Nottingham Forest. City drop out of the Europa League into the UEFA Conference League. Trying to make the best out of a bad situation, the team takes UEFA’s new competition seriously. They narrowly lose 1-0 to Jose Mourinho’s Roma in the semi-final. They finish eighth but the feelings around the club are still positive. What’s the worst that could happen?
2022-23 season
Leicester seem determined to shock the footballing world one more time. Before the 2022/23 season even begins, long-time servant and captain Kasper Schmeichel leaves without a replacement and highly rated centre back Wesley Fofana forces a move away from the club.
The team’s form mirrors all the issues behind the scenes. Fans have to wait until October 3 October for a win: a sweet 4-0 demolition against Nottingham Forest.
Tensions grow larger as Leicester slip further and further down the table. On social media, James Maddison assures fans that they have nothing to worry about, that if the team keep playing how they are, they’d be fine.
Brendan Rodgers is sacked on April 2. It’s too little, too late from the board. The appointment of Dean Smith isn’t enough. Maddison misses a crucial penalty against Everton. Only seven years after winning the league, Leicester City are officially relegated on the last game of the season.
2023-24 season
A new era starts with the appointment of Enzo Maresca and the departure of some of Leicester’s heavy hitters.
The atmosphere among the fans is still poisonous from the previous season despite the introduction of many new faces around the club. But it doesn’t take long for Enzo and his team to change the mood with a 2-1 win against Coventry at the start of the season. By February, they are 11 points clear at the top.
But it wouldn’t be Leicester City without some drama. The Foxes somehow manage to let the chasing pack catch up with them as they hit a bad run of form. Losses to relegation-threatened QPR, Millwall and Plymouth and a capitulation against Leeds has everyone thinking Leicester would somehow find a way to stay down.
April 2024
The club and fans alike take a massive sigh of relief. Despite Leicester’s best efforts at times, the club are officially promoted on Friday, April 26, as Leeds fall apart again with a 4-0 loss away to QPR. Three days later, at Preston North End, they clinch the second-tier title for a record eighth time.
Ten years after being promoted, after all the euphoria, the trophies, the adventure and the tragedy, City are back.
The future of the club? That’s unclear. With the threat of a points deduction looming over the promotion party and long-time servants Marc Albrighton and Jamie Vardy at the end of their contract, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen to Leicester City in the coming years. However, if it’s anything like the last 10 years that preceded them, I’m sure fans won’t complain.
All being well, we will see you in the 2025/26 season for Leicester City’s Premier League trophy parade.
