Leicester’s ultimate top ten players ever: Strikers, the full list and honourable mentions | OneFootball

Our Top Ten Leicester City strikers are:

1.   Jamie Vardy

2.   Arthur Chandler

3.   Arthur Rowley

4.   Ernie Hine

5.   Gary Lineker

7.   Frank Worthington

8.   Jimmy Walsh

9.   Alan Smith

10. Ken Keyworth

Honourable mentions

As we have seen, some Leicester strikers in our top ten, such as Gary Lineker and Alan Smith, scored many goals for the Foxes over a number of seasons and then went on to star at other clubs. Other notable City strikers didn’t play long for the club but subsequently prospered elsewhere or had done so before arriving in the East Midlands. Included in the former category is Mark Bright, Alistair Brown, Kevin Campbell, Allan Clarke. In the latter category is Stan Collymore, Tony Cottee, Brian Dean, Dion Dublin and Les Ferdinand.

Two Leicester marksman are very unlucky not to feature in our top ten. These are Emile Heskey and Ken Leek. The fact that they have been excluded illustrates how well Leicester have been blessed with quality front men.

Local born striker Heskey scored 46 goals in 197 games for the Foxes between 1995 and 2000, picking up two League Cup winner’s medals, and his first England caps, along the way. A powerful and quick, albeit inconsistent, player, Emile came through the youth ranks at Filbert Street making his debut, as a 17-year-old, in March 1995. He established himself in the team under Martin O’Neil which won promotion, excelled in the Premier League for five years and twice won the League Cup. He moved to Liverpool for a record £11 million fee in 2000.

The Welshman Ken Leek played 111 times for Leicester between 1958 and 1961, scoring an impressive 43 goals, after being signed from Northampton Town. He played initially as an inside left before moving into the centre forward role, where his ability in the air could be better facilitated. He scored in every round of the Foxes' FA Cup run in 1961 but was, mystifyingly, left out of the final by Matt Gillies. Understandably, he asked for a transfer and moved on, briefly, to Newcastle and then Birmingham City. With the latter, he made 104 league appearances scoring 49 goals. He did banish the memories of his City experience a little by scoring two goals as the St. Andrew's side beat Aston Villa in the 1963 League Cup final.

Honourable mentions also go to 20 other Leicester forwards: These, in no particular order, are:

Albert Cheesbrough 138 appearances between 1959-63, 43 goals; Steve Claridge (79, 1996-8, 31); George Dewis (129, 1933-49, 51); Derek Dougan (76, 1965-7, 41); Steve Earle (115, 1973-8, 26; Rodney Fern (188, 1968-72, 40); Matty Fryatt (189, 2006-10, 62; Chris Garland (63, 1975-6, 19); Jimmy Goodfellow (121, 1963-7, 36); Derek Hines (317, 1948-61, 117); Steve Howard (169, 2008-12, 32); Julian Joachim (119, 1992-6, 31); Jack Lee (137, 1946-50, 84); David Nugent (180, 2011-15, 59); Iwan Roberts (111, 1993-6, 44); James Scowcroft (147, 2001-5, 28); Leonardo Ulloa (102, 2014-17, 20); Alan Young (119, 1979-82, 29); Kelechi Iheanacho (232, 2017-24, 61) and, finally, Bob Lee (71, 1972-6, 19).