Jamie Vardy will make his 501st and final Leicester City appearance on Sunday afternoon, when the Foxes conclude what has been a disappointing 2024-25 Premier League season with a trip to Bournemouth.
Leicester have collected seven points from their last three league fixtures, but their campaign has ended in relegation, with Ruud van Nistelrooy‘s side 18th in the table and dropping back into the Championship.
Vardy will officially leave the King Power Stadium when his contract expires at the end of June, and it would be fitting if he could find the back of the net on his farewell appearance for the former Premier League champions.
Leicester have had some glorious footballers represent them during their history, Vardy included.
Here, Sports Mole has taken on the difficult task of naming the top 10 greatest players to ever represent the Foxes, and it was incredibly difficult due to the amount of influential figures to have turned out for the club.
Walsh turned out for Leicester between 1986 and 2000, and he is seventh in terms of all-time appearances for the club, having represented them on 450 occasions in all competitions.
The former centre-back will be remembered as one of the most influential players to have represented the Foxes, and he is nicknamed “Captain Fantastic” by the club’s supporters due to the contribution to the cause.
Izzet turned out for Leicester between 1996 and 2004, scoring 37 times in 260 league appearances for the club, and the fact that he stuck with the club during a difficult period means that he is placed in the top 10.
An inspirational midfielder, won two League Cups during his time with the Foxes, while he also famously helped Turkey finish third at the 2002 World Cup, with Izzet undoubtedly one of the most naturally gifted footballers to represent the club.
Morgan played for Leicester between 2012 and 2021, and he skippered the club during its most successful period of all time.
Indeed, he captained the Foxes to the Championship title in 2014, the Premier League title in 2016 and then the FA Cup in 2021, finishing with 323 appearances for the club, and his performances during the team’s title-winning Premier League campaign were exceptional.
Morgan helped take Leicester from the Championship to the Champions League, and he was described by the club’s former manager Claudio Ranieri as the “perfect captain”, demonstrating his importance to the club.
One of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, Banks represented Leicester between 1959 and 1966, making 356 appearances for the Foxes.
Banks finished as a runner-up in the 1961 and 1963 FA Cup finals, in addition to the League Cup in 1965, but he did help Leicester win the League Cup in 1964, and he will always be fondly remembered by the club’s supporters.
Banks, who famously starred in England’s 1966 World Cup triumph, would later go on to represent Stoke City before bringing an end to his career in 1978.
No player has turned out for Leicester on more occasions than Cross, with the Englishman representing the club on 600 occasions between 1961 and 1975, and he famously started his career as an inside forward before switching to defence.
Cross balanced his football duties with a cricket career, making his longevity even more remarkable, and it remains to be seen whether his appearance record for the club is ever broken considering how football has evolved.
One of England’s greatest-ever goalscorers, Lineker represented the Foxes between 1978 and 1985, scoring 103 goals for the club, which has placed him seventh on the all-time list.
Lineker was awarded the freedom of the City honour in 1995, but he only managed to lift one piece of silverware during his time with the Foxes, which proved to be the Football League Second Division title in 1980.
The former forward scored 48 times in 80 appearances for England, while he also represented Everton, Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur during an excellent career which eventually came to an end in 1994.
Mahrez would go on to achieve great things at Manchester City, but his breakthrough in English football came at Leicester, famously making a £450,000 switch to the club from Le Havre, so he will go down as one of the greatest-ever signings in the history of the game.
The attacker scored 48 goals and registered 35 assists in 179 appearances for Leicester between 2014 and 2018, winning the Premier League and Championship title in the process, and his exceptional form for the Foxes secured him a famous move to Man City.
Now with Al-Ahli, Mahrez continues to show his class, and he has a special place in Leicester’s history.
Kante’s selection is a controversial one considering that he only represented Leicester for one season, and the fact that the likes of Arthur Chandler and Adam Black have been left out of this list needs to be acknowledged.
However, the midfielder’s performance level during the 2015-16 was so exceptional that it would have been wrong to leave him out when discussing the greatest players to have represented Leicester.
The Frenchman played a vital role in Leicester winning the Premier League title in 2015-16, and his switch to Chelsea also allowed the Foxes to make a huge profit after just one year, which was incredibly beneficial for the club’s finances.
Only two players have scored more times than Vardy for Leicester, one of those is Chandler, who as mentioned above, is unfortunate to miss out on the list, with the Englishman managing 273 goals for the club.
The other is Rowley, who scored 265 times for the Foxes in 321 appearances between 1950 and 1958.
Rowley holds the record for the most goals in the history of English league football, having found the back of the net 434 times in 619 league appearances, and he incredibly netted 16 hat tricks during his time with Leicester, winning two Second Division championships in the process.
1. Jamie Vardy
Vardy should be regarded as Leicester’s greatest-ever player considering what he has achieved during his time at the club.
The 38-year-old has a record of 200 goals and 71 assists in 500 appearances for Leicester, with that number including two Champions League goals, while he has 145 goals in 342 Premier League appearances, which is staggering for a Leicester player.
Vardy managed 24 goals in 38 appearances during Leicester’s Premier League title-winning campaign, and the fact that he progressed from non-league to the top of English football makes his achievements even more remarkable.
Signed from Fleetwood Town for £1m in 2012, he fired the Foxes from the Championship to the Premier League and then the Champions League, and he then helped them return from the second tier in 2023-24 with 18 goals in the Championship.
Vardy has come up with 10 more goals during the current season, and it is understood that he has no plans to retire, with a move to the MLS possible, but he is also being linked with a switch to Italy and Spain.
