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Can Andy King make it three titles in ten years with Leicester City?


When Andy King was introduced as a 79th minute substitution it marked only his 22nd appearance of the 2015/16 Premier League season, but the roar of applause he received and the chant that broke out reaffirmed that King still firmly rules Leicester hearts. Only this weekend stands between the Foxes’ midfielder and history. Only eight seasons ago, King was involved in a 2-0 loss against Tranmere Rovers in the English third tier of football; now he and the club stand on the brink of clinching the Premier League title.

One-club players are a rare commodity in football these days. You can count on one hand how many of them grace the Premier League, but King is one of them. Taken in at a tender age of fifteen, fresh from rejection at Chelsea, the midfielder worked his way up through the academy ranks to the first team and Leicester has been home ever since. Almost ten years on from his professional début, could he be part of a Leicester team getting a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge? He’s been asked the question and, sensibly, knows that nothing is done until it’s mathematically wrapped up, but it’s definitely looking more and more likely. Such success will also ensure that King finds himself with another record and one that’s unlikely to be broken for some time; he’ll be the only player to have played in, as well as been crowned Champions, in three separate divisions: League One, the Championship and the Premier League. No player for any club has previously done this.

To properly find King’s rise, you have to go back to Leicester’s lowest moment; relegation to League One in May 2008. While Leicester may have risen from the ashes of what was left after that campaign, losing just four times in the league, King came out of it and soared. Neither he nor the club have really looked back since. What would then have been the midfielder’s proudest moment, making his professional début in October 2007 was topped when he scored his first goal just two months later, but would have soured somewhat by relegation another five months later. No professional wants that on their CV, regardless of whether it was their fault or not. King was one of the unlucky group of incredibly young players, that included Richard Stearman and Joe Mattock, tasked with helping Ian Holloway’s Foxes avoid the drop, a job too big for fresh-faced youth to correct. Hindsight shows that this relegation was what we deserved and more importantly, needed, but it was a bitter pill to swallow at the time. Some young players may not have bounced back from the negativity at the club that year, but that’s a word never associated with King.

The squad, and personnel in general at Leicester, changed drastically between May and August in 2008. Many did not want to be associated with League One and left, others like manager Holloway were left with no choice. While several young players chose to take moves to clubs in higher divisions, King stayed and signed a new deal after eleven appearances. Whether he knew at that time the crucial part he’d play in getting the Foxes back to the Championship, I don’t know. Nigel Pearson soon saw the talent in the midfielder though. Just 20 years old, King went on to play 50 times in all competitions across the campaign that saw Leicester crowned as Champions. He bagged 9 goals for himself and set up a fair few more. It’s a statistic that’s often forgotten about when people look back his contributions for Leicester.

For a player who is still only 27 years old, King is wise and experienced beyond his years. He’s one of three players that Claudio Ranieri consults with each week, along with captain Wes Morgan and vice-captain Kasper Schmeichel, a sign that while he may not get as much game time as he’d like, his role extends far beyond just being on the pitch each game. He’s a trusted player, a true professional and a gentleman of the game if there was one. Even thrust into the limelight for Leicester at just 21-22 years old, King was not a player you ever heard a bad word about. Managers alike adored him with Sven-Goran Eriksson and Paulo Sousa both happy to hand him captaincy despite his age. You wouldn’t find him in the media for doing the wrong thing on or off the pitch and he’s always had a reputation as being friendly and approachable, with time for the fans. He’s been at the club long enough to know the importance of supporters; heck, he’s the closest thing to a Leicester fan we have in the team with Liam Moore currently out of the frame.

Now past the 300 appearance mark, also leading the way in the all-time top scoring midfielders for Leicester, King has achieved something at a pretty young age that many will never achieve at just one club. In the Premier League, only one player has been at their current club longer, Tony Hibbert, the long-serving Everton defender. Outside of England, King’s company in the one-club man category looks even more elite when you factor in Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Roma’s Francesco Totti are amongst its members, interestingly the latter looks to be a transfer target for Ranieri in the summer with Roma seemingly not extending his contract.

King’s goals for Leicester have always ensured that he stands apart from the average midfielder. They’ve made him more of a complete player and he’s usually been there with a goal when we’ve needed it. Our top goalscorer in the 2011/12 campaign, he stepped in when other strikers weren’t firing. He’s netted key goals in almost every season he’s played in. Even last season when his appearances were limited, who else could have scored that goal against west Ham to make Premier League survival a realistic target but Andy King. A goal so huge that he didn’t even know quite how to celebrate it, I still get a tingle down the spine thinking what that helped inspire.

King’s path with Leicester hasn’t always been easy though. After the initial heartache of relegation in his first season, he was a part of two sides who both made it into the play-offs only to go out in the toughest of circumstances. The first came when he was just 21, as Leicester lost away at Cardiff on penalties, always a cruel method. The second time was that game against Watford when dreams crumbled and hearts broke in the space of sixty seconds. He, and the team, were vindicated when we secured promotion the Premier League as Champions in the 2013/14 season and it was written all over King’s face what finally getting to the top level meant.

He’s had several injuries along the way and twice found himself out of favour in midfield to Danny Drinkwater and partner, be it Matty James, Esteban Cambiasso or now N’Golo Kante. Never one to publicly complain or look to leave, he has responded each time by putting his head down and working harder in training. Widely liked by all at the club, even Ranieri has admitted it’s tough not to play him but that he understands why he isn’t seeing more game time. Like the Foxes though, King fights on and this particular chapter of his career looks like it could well have a happy ending.

Individually, this year could be the best yet for King. He may not be playing as often ash he’d like for club, but Leicester aside, he has other ambitions for the European Championships with Wales. Whilst born in England, King’s Grandad is Welsh, leading the midfielder to pledging his international career to them. Fitness permitting, he’s almost guaranteed a place in Chris Coleman’s squad who will hope to continue a legacy that the late Gary Speed kick-started. With a group game against England, King could also find himself lining up on the opposite side to club team-mates, Jamie Vardy and maybe even Danny Drinkwater. If he’s applying the Ranieri mentality of course, he won’t be thinking further ahead than Manchester United on Sunday for his club, but it would be acceptable if he’s daydreaming of France in the summer.

If Leicester do find themselves holding the Premier League trophy, there’ll be tears and celebrations from so many parties. For the fans, it would mean more than words can convey. With eighteen years of supporting the Foxes under my belt, I’m still a fairly new fan in comparison to some of those who have got decades on me and who have long waited for something so huge to happen to our club. For the players, it’s special, perhaps once in a lifetime for some of them. For King? A combination of both. He knows more than most about this club and how it pulled itself back up and had to start again after several heartbreaks. He’s been there throughout, he’s been key at every point and he deserves this more than most. It’s hard to imagine the club without him now and if we do complete this impossible dream and lift the title, I suspect it’ll be seeing King that will fully set off my emotions. Already a Leicester legend, this would see him immortalised as one of the Foxes’ greats with hopefully more to come for him.