Born in Devon, raised in Maidenhead, attacking midfielder Andy was an early choice as a Welsh international prospect, getting his first U19 call-up in July 2006, then becoming a key component of City’s championship sidein the following season’s Premier Academy U18 league. He was offered as a potential loanee to York City shortly after signing pro-forms, but with months, still only 18, Andy stood in for skipper Stephen Clemence in a goalless draw against Wolves and an away win at Sheffield Wednesday.
Unluckily injured in training with his national squad after an immediate U21 call.up, he received further first-team encouragement at Leicester City as the season slipped towards relegation nightmare, then became a near-ever-present for Nigel Pearson in the ensuing League One title charge, showing mature distribution skill and contributing a very healthy tally of often spectacular goals, and putting himself on the radar for a senior Welsh breakthrough.
The latter came when he appeared as a late sub in the 1-0 victory over Estonia in May 2009. He added a further two full caps in 2009/10, skippered his country’s U21s, and continued to shine in the City engine room on the Play-Off path, with a second successive double figure goal haul from the campaign.
The perfect timing of his runs from deep was a major contributory factor to him becoming top scorer for the club in 2010/11, with 15 league strikes and another Cup counter, and Andy was named both the City Players’ Player of the Year and in the PFA’s 2011 Championship Team of the Year.
His form hit something hit something of a plateau thereafter, however, and he had become a far from automatic selection against competition from the likes of Danny Drinkwater and Matty James by the time his 54th Leicester City goal (at Wigan in April 2014) saw him overtake Davie Gibson as the club’s all time highest scoring midfielder.
Andy nonetheless became the second Leicester City player (after Paul Dickov) to have appeared at three levels of league football for the club when making his Premier League bow. Thereafter, in October 2014, Andy signed a new four year deal. His winner in the West Ham home game in the following April, which essentially sparked teh near-miraculous survival effort, meant he’d become the second to score goals in three different divisions with the club.
Andy could have been excused if he’d approached the ensuing top-flight term under Claudio Ranieri with some trepidation, considering the strength in depth of the club, but in fact he emerged from that fairy story campaign with healthy playing time under his belt, having shown admirable maturity and composure whether starting or joining the fray from the bench.
He became an absolute legend after that Premier League winning season, being unique in the sense that he had won the League 1 (08-09), League Championship (13-14) and Premier League (15/16) title with the one and same club, Leicester City.
He also had the satisfaction of having been part of the squad that took Wales to its first international finals tourney since 1958, and the only bowed out of Euro-16 at the semi-final stage, with a creditable 90 minutes against Portugal.
Andy penned a new deal in 2016, being offered new terms, lasting until June 2020. The change of managers resulted in Andy being loaned out, first to Swansea City and last season to Derby County.
He was earlier this summer quoted in an interview, critical to the behavior of Claude Puel and his tactics towards him, trying to freeze him out, instead of honoring his contract for the period lasting.
Andy was well included in the pre-season plans of Brendan Rodgers, and hopefully get a look in during the 2019-20 campaign. He is also to date holding the record of Leicester City most capped player with a tally of 50 Wales caps, scoring twice.
- Full Name: Andrew Philip King
- Position: Midfield
- Date of Birth: 29.10.1988
- Birthplace: Barnstaple, England
- Nation: Wales
- Caps / Goals: 50/2
- Major League Career:
- 2006 ->, Leicester City (329/55)
- 2017-18, Swansea City (11/2) Loan
- 2018-19, Derby County (4/0) Loan
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