The FA Cup returns this weekend, and it feels like a lifetime ago when Leicester City were crowned champions of the famous competition.
It’s been four years since Youri Tielemans made history for the Foxes at Wembley Stadium as Leicester overcame Chelsea 1-0 in one of the first large-scale events in a post-Covid-19 United Kingdom, with Brendan Rodgers etching his name into club folklore forever.
With Leicester being knocked out of the FA Cup this year by Manchester United, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side will have even more time to rest up ahead of the return of the Premier League next week, where a miracle is needed if the East Midlands side are to survive.
Indeed, the FA Cup run of 2021 will never be forgotten by Leicester fans, and one player from that season made a bigger impact than most on route to the final.
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Kelechi Iheanacho was influential to Leicester’s FA Cup success
Kelechi Iheanacho’s time at Leicester was unusual, to say the least, but one thing that is for certain is that the Nigeria international played a massive role in the Foxes going all the way to win the FA Cup in 2021.
Signed from Manchester City in 2017, Iheanacho had shown sparks of promise in his first few years at Leicester yet had yet to really set the King Power Stadium alight, yet that was all to change in the 2020/21 season.
The Owerri-born attacker scored an impressive 12 goals in all competitions for Leicester, yet it was his involvement in the FA Cup that were the most memorable, with Iheanacho scoring a brace against Manchester United in the quarter-final to send the Foxes on their way to the final four and beyond.
Indeed, Iheanacho heroics against the Red Devils played a huge part in Leicester winning the FA Cup, yet since that run to Wembley, the striker’s career has taken an unexpected and rather unfortunate turn in the following years.
Kelechi Iheanacho now struggling in the Championship with Middlesbrough
After a few more years of disappointing seasons with Leicester, including an underwhelming year back in the Championship with Enzo Maresca, Iheanacho left the Foxes as a free-agent in 2024, where the striker was surprisingly picked up by Spanish giants Sevilla.
However, despite the chance of playing in a new country and a league that could be suited to his skillset, Iheanacho once again struggled, with the attacker managing just three goals in 11 appearances for Sevilla this season.
And at the time of writing, Iheanacho is currently back in the Championship with Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough on loan, where the forward is yet to score or assist despite being a regular for the Teeside club since signing in January.