Only Jamie Vardy remains: Where Leicester's title-winners are TODAY
Jamie Vardy is the ONLY player left at Leicester from their 5000-1 miracle Premier League title-winning team in 2016… with Christian Fuchs retiring an MLS cult hero and Danny Drinkwater’s career in freefall, here’s where the stars are TODAY
- Leicester famously won the Premier League title in 2015-16 with Claudio Ranieri
- His side was full of stars such as Jamie Vardy, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez
- Only Vardy remains at the King Power after Marc Albrighton’s deadline day exit
For the club that brought one of the most memorable moments in Premier League history, it’s been a remarkably forgettable season at the King Power.
In the years that followed Leicester’s fairytale title triumph in 2015-16, the Foxes flirted with the Premier League’s elite, enjoyed Champions League and Europa League football and lifted the FA Cup in 2021.
But fast forward to this season, and head coach Brendan Rodgers is facing a battle against relegation, with Leicester teetering one point above the drop zone.
Leicester winger Marc Albrighton completed his loan switch to West Brom on deadline day
As a result, now only striker Jamie Vardy remains from Leicester’s title-winning side in 2015-16
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and the legacy of Leicester’s triumphant team under Claudio Ranieri has almost entirely left the King Power.
Now, after Marc Albrighton’s deadline day loan switch to West Bromwich Albion, only Jamie Vardy remains – and even he is enduring a career-low season in terms of goals and assists at the club.
With just one title-winning Fox left in the den, Sportsmail takes a look at where Leicester’s legends are today.
Claudio Ranieri’s underdogs famously lifted the Premier League trophy in the 2015-16 season
Kasper Schmeichel
The Danish stopper opted for a fresh start this summer after 11 years at the King Power, completing a shock free transfer to Nice in August.
Enduring a tricky introduction, the 36-year-old’s entourage asked owner Jim Ratcliffe to start him in the first match of the season, but Schmeichel found himself on the bench instead, having reportedly arrived with a ‘very high’ body fat percentage.
The Dane has since proved his worth at the French club, starting 18 league matches to help Nice boast the fourth-best defensive record in Ligue 1 behind leaders PSG, Lens and Marseille.
Nice chose not to play goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in their opening match of the season
The Dane has since become an integral part of Nice’s watertight defence so far this campaign
Danny Simpson
After spending five seasons at Leicester, the right-back left to join Huddersfield in 2019 before embarking upon a new chapter with Bristol City.
Simpson left the Championship club last March following just over a year with the Robins, after his contract was cancelled by mutual consent.
The Manchester United academy graduate kept himself busy playing poker online with his former team-mate Danny Webber during the summer, regularly advertising his poker live streams on Twitter.
And since, the full-back has made a series of TV pundit appearances while launching a campaign to support players’ mental health at the end of their careers.
Danny Simpson left Bristol City by mutual consent in March 2022 and is still without a club
Robert Huth
The towering centre-half was an instrumental part of Ranieri’s title-winning side, rolling back the years with some traditional ‘no nonsense’ defending.
It’s a style of play Huth is more than proud of, formerly referring to himself on social media as an ‘ex-shirtpulling, elbowing, body checking’ Premier League winner.
After his retirement in 2018, the 38-year-old completed a Master of Science in Sports Directorship degree and returned to the Foxes in October, becoming the club’s new loans manager.
Tasked with looking after the players sent out on loan, he’ll have plenty of time to reminisce about the glory days with Albrighton now that he’s heading to The Hawthorns for the remainder of the season.
Robert Huth is now loans manager at Leicester and will look after Albrighton at The Hawthorns
Wes Morgan
Hailed as the Foxes’ ‘Captain Fantastic’, Morgan left the club in the most fitting manner in 2021, lifting the FA Cup in his final campaign.
The Jamaican centre-back has since become a member of the Premier League Black Participants’ Advisory Group, hoping to lead the way for more diversity in football.
Morgan, who revealed he had no interest in becoming a manager after retirement, has been doing plenty of work for Soccer Aid and UNICEF, amongst other charities.
Wes Morgan, 39, became a member of the Premier League Black Participants’ Advisory Group
Christian Fuchs
Leicester’s dependable former left-back has undertaken several business ventures since exiting the King Power in 2021, starting up his own eSports team called No Fuchs Given and football academy named Fox Soccer.
After hopping across the pond to star for Charlotte in the MLS, Fuchs stormed to second in shirt sales behind LAFC star Gareth Bale, before announcing his retirement from professional football last month.
Fuchs even revealed in 2016 that he would one day ‘seriously’ consider becoming an NFL kicker after hanging up his football boots. Is there anything this man can’t do?
Christian Fuchs climbed to second in MLS shirt sales behind LAFC star Gareth Bale this season
N’Golo Kante
Arguably the most successful former Fox on the list, Kante went on to win another Premier League, the Champions League and the World Cup following his move to Chelsea in 2016. Only Riyad Mahrez comes close to rivalling his domestic success.
The 31-year-old has spent the majority of this campaign on the sidelines at Stamford Bridge, suffering from a series of knee problems and muscular issues.
With Graham Potter hoping to propel the off-colour Blues back up the table, Kante will be hoping for a fresh start upon his return from injury, after a turbulent few months in west London.
Chelsea star N’Golo Kante has spent most of this season on the sidelines at Stamford Bridge
Danny Drinkwater
The central midfielder left Leicester for £35million to join Chelsea in 2017, after playing a pivotal box-to-box role with the title-winners.
However, his move to the capital was nothing short of a disaster — and the Blues went on to loan him out four times in three seasons between 2019 and 2022.
Having returned from his loan spell at Reading and still without a club following his release from Chelsea this summer, Drinkwater’s career remains on the scrapheap.
Ex-England international Danny Drinkwater was released by Chelsea and remains a free agent
Riyad Mahrez
For anyone who thought Mahrez’s scintillating display during 2015-16 was a flash in the pan, the Algerian has more than asserted himself as a world-class talent at Manchester City.
Adding seven domestic trophies to his portfolio since joining in 2018, the winger has kicked on from the triumph at the King Power and carved out a fruitful and lucrative Premier League career.
Enjoying a purple patch of form since the Premier League restart in December, Mahrez has chalked up six goal contributions – three goals and three assists – in his last six appearances under Pep Guardiola.
Riyad Mahrez has won seven domestic trophies since swapping Leicester for Man City in 2018
Marc Albrighton
The reliable winger was one of only two players from Ranieri’s starting line-up to still be at the club, before he completed his loan transfer to the Baggies on deadline day.
Whilst perhaps not flaunting the skillset of Mahrez at City, Albrighton remained an integral part of the Foxes’ recent successes, featuring in their FA Cup final triumph in 2021 and their Champions League quarter-final in 2017.
Now set for a new chapter having only made one Premier League start for Rodgers this season, the 33-year-old will hope to fire West Brom into the play-offs ahead of what promises to be a tightly-contested tussle for promotion.
Albrighton has been brought in to help West Brom in their fight for Premier League promotion
Shinji Okazaki
The Japanese international spent four campaigns with Leicester before moving to Malaga, Huesca and Cartagena.
Following the expiry of his contract last summer, Okazaki teamed up with international team-mate and former Manchester United star Shinji Kagawa at Belgian outfit Sint-Truidense in August. Kagawa soon returned home to Japan to join his first club Cerezo Osaka last month.
Goals have unfortunately alluded Okazaki in Belgium to date, with the striker scoring just once in 21 appearances across all competitions this season.
Shinji Okazaki has scored just once in 21 matches for Belgian outfit Sint-Truidense this season
The rest of the squad: Where are they now?
Goalkeepers:
Ben Hamer: Watford
Mark Schwarzer: Retired
Defenders:
Daniel Amartey: Leicester
Yohan Benalouane: Novara
Ritchie De Laet: Royal Antwerp
Liam Moore: Reading
Marcin Wasilewski: Retired
Midfielders:
Nathan Dyer: Retired
Demarai Gray: Everton
Gokhan Inler: Adana Demirspor
Matty James: Bristol City
Andy King: Bristol City
Jeffrey Schlupp: Crystal Palace
Forwards:
Andrej Kramaric: Hoffenheim
Tom Lawrence: Rangers
Leonardo Ulloa: Retired
Jamie Vardy
The striker’s record-breaking term was followed by seven superb seasons leading the line at Leicester, in which he boosted his tally to 134 Premier League goals.
Vardy, who is enduring the worst campaign of his King Power career with just one league goal in 20 matches, still avidly remembers the moment they won the title at his famous party in 2016.
‘It was literally just a get-together,’ he told Bleacher Report last March. ‘It got to half-time and we’d all had a few beers obviously watching the game.
‘As the game went on, it started getting a bit closer with Gary Cahill scoring first and then Hazard put it in.
‘I mean, I was doing a somersault on to the settee. Wes [Morgan] was getting dragged around my kitchen by his feet.
‘But as full-time went, it was the complete opposite. You just had your little celebration and everything went into silence.
‘Everyone took themselves off into their own corner and tried reflecting on it as best they could themselves.’
Vardy’s dip in goal-scoring form this term has no doubt influenced Leicester’s lacklustre start to the campaign, and the last remaining title winner will need to inspire the new guard if the Foxes are to secure Premier League survival ahead of next season.
Only three points separate Leicester, Leeds, West Ham, Wolves, Bournemouth, Everton and Southampton at the foot of the table, and the Foxes have a testing spell to come with Aston Villa, Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal in their next four league games.
As Leicester’s last remaining title winner, Vardy must inspire the new guard to beat the drop
Claudio Ranieri
The iconic manager, who was axed by Watford in January 2022, joined Serie B promotion hopefuls Cagliari in December after almost a year out of work.
Cagliari was where Ranieri first made his name as a manager over thirty years ago, helping the team climb from the third tier of Italian football to Serie A in three seasons before joining Napoli in 1991.
Ranieri’s warm character and quirky methods at Leicester inspired a Cinderella story for the ages, but he has struggled to produce anything of real significance since.
Despite his prickly end at the King Power, Ranieri admitted that Leicester still holds a very special place in his heart.
He told Sky Sports: ‘Leicester will be in my heart for all my life. I had won things around Europe before but never the title. This time, I won the title and Leicester and the fans will always be in my heart for me.’
Ranieri, who made his name as a manager at Cagliari, returned to their hot seat last December
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