Leicester City’s 12 greatest ever strikers (Ranked) | OneFootball

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This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Leicester City are a club steeped in history and have enjoyed great spells throughout their history.

The peak for fans of the Foxes, of course, came in 2015/16 as they won the Premier League title in the most remarkable of circumstances. This was made even better by the fact that this was their first-ever top-flight success.

During this time period and also throughout the 1900s, a number of famous strikers led the line.

Here are the 12 greatest ever strikers to wear the blue and white of Leicester, according to FLW’s fan pundit from the club Jayden Whitworth.

12 Shinji Okazaki

The first name on this list is a member of that title-winning squad in the form of Shinji Okazaki.

At 37, he is still playing with Belgian outfit Sint-Truiden, his current location. He is in fact the highest-scoring active player for the Japan national team and became one of just six players from his country to score in the Champions League when he found the back of the net against Club Brugge in 2016.

Okazaki was a cult hero during his time with Leicester, alongside fellow striker Leonardo Ulloa.

11 Kelechi Iheanacho

11th place is even more recent than Okazaki with the man in question current forward Kelechi Iheanacho.

The Nigerian international has stayed put under the stewardship of Enzo Maresca in spite of the club’s relegation.

Iheanacho joined Leicester from Manchester City in 2017 and has been hit-and-miss in front of goal, his best return being 12 along with two assists in the 2020/21 Premier League season.

10 Keith Weller

To begin the top ten, we have to rewind to the Leicester City of yesteryear with American-born England international Keith Weller.

Weller was born in Seattle, Washington and he spent many years playing and coaching across the pond too, but not before he left his mark in the UK.

After sampling different areas of London with Millwall, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, he then landed in Leicester. Eight seasons later, he left a legend and is still highly revered in that area of the country.

9 Frank Worthington

Onto another player who is sadly no longer with us, Frank Worthington, who passed away recently, in March of 2021.

Worthington also ran out for England and when it comes to club football, he was the epitome of a journeyman.

Focusing on his time with the Foxes, he was there from 1972 to 1977, making over 200 league appearances in the process and scoring 72 times. Fun fact, he was a huge Elvis Presley fan!

8 Michael Stringfellow

Born five years prior to Worthington was Michael Stringfellow and the pair crossed paths at Leicester City.

Stringfellow only played for three clubs in his career and was with Leicester from 1962 all the way to 1975.

He scored in the League Cup final win over Stoke City in 1963, his side coming out on top 4-3 on aggregate.

7 Emile Heskey

Returning to the modern era and to a striker who is often unfairly overlooked in the form of Emile Heskey.

Heskey, who is currently involved with Leicester’s Women’s’ team as a matter of fact, broke through at Filbert Street at such a young age.

He made his first-team debut at just 17 and went on to enjoy an excellent few years with the club, winning the League Cup twice as well as reigning victorious in the 1996 First Division play-offs.

Heskey earned his acclaim as an England international during his time with Liverpool, primarily, but it all began for him at Leicester.

6 Alan Smith

There are two famous English forwards by the name of Alan Smith but only one of them ever donned the blue and white of the Foxes.

Alan Smith, who can now be heard on Sky Sports regularly, is a Leicester icon as well as an Arsenal legend.

He played for the former between 1982 and 1987 where he partnered a certain striker who is still to come on this list at one point during his Leicester tenure.

5 Ernie Hine

Breaking into the top five is Ernie Hine, who was born in 1901 in Barnsley.

Hine is the third-highest goal scorer in the history of Leicester and is 18th overall in the all-time annals of English football, netting 287 times.

He also played for Manchester United, Huddersfield Town and Barnsley twice.

4 Gary Lineker

The man that was previously alluded to as a partner of Alan Smith at one point or another is the famous Gary Lineker.

Since stepping away from the pitch, he is best known as the Match of the Day host/presenter as well as a key ambassador for Walkers crisps. On the field, not only was he a great goal scorer, but he also famously never received a yellow card and had something of an unfortunate accident once, too.

Goals were Lineker’s bread and butter both for England and his beloved Leicester City, winning the Second Division title in 1979-80 before going on to play for the likes of Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona.

3 Arthur Rowley

Arthur Rowley is in third place and he holds the nickname “The Gunner” for his firing and ferocious left-foot.

He isn't a name many will know in the current day and age, yet he holds a number of impressive records. He scored the most goals in a single season ever for both Leicester and Shrewsbury Town.

All of this and more given that he has scored the most goals in the history of English league football with a whopping 434 in 619 games.

2 Arthur Chandler

Now to his namesake in second place, Arthur Chandler.

This Arthur is the club’s all-time record goal scorer and Leicester was where he passed away in 1984.

Chandler made just short of 400 league appearances for the Foxes in the Second and First Division in the 1920s and 1930s.

1 Jamie Vardy

Rowley and Chandler are history makers that the modern fan won’t be aware of, but everybody knows the name Jamie Vardy.

He led the line as Claudio Ranieri’s side won the Premier League title in remarkable fashion and was named as the Player of the Season for the whole division.

One of his personal accolades from that season was breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record for consecutive games scored in, making it 11 games on the spin against Manchester United of all teams.

He didn’t win the golden boot that year but he did in 2019/20 and it will be fascinating to see what he can do for Leicester, now that they’re back in the Championship, at the age of 36.