Looking back at former foxes going abroad, you have of course a number of them, but not all had as much success as those we have picked out in this talk about thoe foxes with great trophy hunts and legendary status obtained.
Gordon Milne was the manager at Leicester City from 1982 to 1986. Milne promoted Leicester and kept the club in the top flight in all his seasons, and bringing forward a group of great talent, Alan Smith and Gary Lineker in particular.
Milne left Leicester and was appointed manager of Besiktas, a club he served from 1987 to 1994, getting magical results, winning the league three times and several wins also in the cup’s of Turkey.
Milne is one of the most underrated minds of English football management, making his trade as a player at Preston North End, Liverpool and Blackpool in the 50’s and 60’s also playing 14 times for England. His work at Coventry and Leicester City was never described as “magical” but the teams he build together with limited resources got it’s answers when Milne really made everything during seven years with Besiktas.
He brought with him Ian Wilson, which he signed from Everton, a player he had formed and developed a lot at Leicester City, also seeing him becoming a Scottish full capped international. Wilson also experienced to win the Turkish league with Besiktas and later worked as assistant to Gordon Milne in Japan and in Turkey.
Milne returned to England and was appointed Director of Football at Newcastle United working alongside Sir Bobby Robson, with the two experienced men putting The Magpies back on the map, but again as always Milne, a modest man, stayed out of the limelight and was probably not recognized as much as he should for a good period up north.
Iain Hume played at Leicester City in a period of time when “chips were a bit down” and moved on to Barnsley of all places when the 08-09 season ended in relegation. After a good period with Preston North End, being seen as a good and reliable forward at Championship level, Hume decided in 2014 to quit English football and move out East, joining Indian Super League top start Kerala Blasters.
He ended runners-up in his seasons with Kerala Blasters and later joined Atletico De Kolkata and became champion in 2016. He has since moved back to Kerala and latest seen at Pune City another Indian team.
Shinji Okazaki who we all got to know during his great years at Leicester City, winning the league and all that. He was not the first Japanese at Leicester City with Yuki Abe joining back in 2010 and spending two seasons, before returning to Japan and his club Urawa Red Diamonds, still playing and has since moving back played another 232 league games adding to his 120 from before, counting it all to 352.
Okazaki and Abe are two players that have iconic status in their home country, both being capped sever at international level and making their people proud.
Not many former or current Leicester City players can say they have played in a World Cup final, but that is a fact for Andrej Kramaric who had a bit of a difficult time in England but at Hoffenheim he has netted 50 goals in 103 league appearances.
Kramaric is one of the hottest prospects in European football at the moment and we could see him making a major move to much bigger club. The 28 year old is enjoying life at Hoffenheim and to get him you need to “splash the cash”.
Gokhan Inler only played five league games during the 2015/16 season, but his legacy in Italy is there to see, playing an important role at clubs such as Udinese and Lazio were he was a key player for several seasons, playing more than 250 league games over a period of eight years.
A legendary goalkeeper named Jimmy Nielsen, signed for Leicester City never got the chance to play a single league game during his two years at Leicester City. Nielsen served Aalborg for 12 years before his move to Leicester in 2007, playing 342 league games for his only Danish club. Nielsen later moved to the MLS were he joined Sporting Kansas City and added up another 128 league appearances. He even was voted MLS goalkeeper of the year, but strangely not able to get a chance in the Leicester City goal with an aging Rab Douglas and the younger Conrad Logan as main competitors.
Nielsen has since hanging up his boots been seen in management at Oklahoma City Energy and now with Hartford Athletic.
Former fox Nils Eric Johansson moved back to Sweden in 2007 and joined AIK Stockholm, played on for 11 more seasons and added up 297 league games and was part of a great period at that club winning the league and a cup title in those years as well as being rated among the best defenders within his consistent display.
Lars Hirschfeld made one single league appearance at Leicester City, later moving to Norway were he was rated among the best goalkeepers in the top flight playing first for Tromso then being sold to Rosenborg, being crowned league champion in 2006. He moved to Valerenga and later to KFUM both clubs based in Oslo Norway.
Lars played 156 league games in Norwegian football, before leaving this year, being appointed goalkeeper coach at FC Edmonton, a team in the newly started Canadian Premier League. The now 40 year goalkeeper moved a bit around and in between his time at four different clubs in Norway he also played in Romania and Germany.
Going back to the days of NASL a number of former foxes joined for a season or two playing a number of games, and Jon Sammels was part of that Vancouver Whitecaps team that managed to win the championship in 1979. Kjetil Osvold who had a short loan spell at Leicester City in 1987.
Pontus Kåmark is also one who has a number of winners medals counting a number of league wins with IFK Gothenburg, a World Cup bronze with Sweden. Not to fault Youri Tielemans winning league titles with Anderlecht and a World Cup bronze as well.
Ahmed Musa is a former Russian league winner three times with CSKA Moscow and added a new league winners medal to his collection in this season with Al-Nassr. Gary Lineker never won the league while at Barcelona but could an Europen Cup winners cup and a domestic cup title to his collection of trophies.
Sven Goran Eriksson had a glorious life in football management many years before joining Leicester City winning the league and cup in Sweden with IFK Gothenburg, and also bring home a very surprising and the first ever European title in Swedish football history. Svennis later won a number of championships with Benfica in Portugal and had great success in Italy winning the cup and in Europe while in charge of Fiorentina, Roma, Lazio and Sampdoria.
One player that also have been at Leicester City is Roberto Mancini, mainly being a signing appearing out of the blue due to the connection between Svennis and Peter Taylor while the pair worked together in the England set up. Mancini has since leaving Leicester City moved in management abroad as well as in England and now being the manager of Italy.
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