What Leicester City's best homegrown side looks like with Celtic and Fulham stars included
A look at how Leicester City would line up if they fielded a team that only contained academy graduates, with players plucked from sides around England and Europe
Even though 15-year-old Jeremy Monga missed out on a debut at Manchester United, he remains a Leicester City academy success story.
To have a player as good as Monga is at his age, it is not only a testament to him, but to the coaches behind the scenes at City that have helped him up through the ranks.
While there's more that could be done, City have had reasonable success in recent years of bring through players from their academy into the first team, with the likes of Ben Chilwell, Harvey Barnes and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall going on to be come regulars.
It wasn't always this way, but strides have been made over the past decade or so. It means that there's a healthy number of City academy graduates plying their trade around the Premier League and EFL, and around Europe too.
As a little experiment, we've put together what may be the best line-up that only includes City academy graduates. You can let us know your thoughts on the squad, and where in the English league ladder they might be competing, in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
GK: Jakub Stolarczyk (Leicester City)
Joining from his native Poland aged 16, Stolarczyk has worked his way up the City ranks and after a couple of loan spells at Dunfermline and Hartlepool where he made a big impact, Enzo Maresca made him Mads Hermansen’s number two. In his few outings over the past 18 months, he's looked a more-than-capable goalkeeper, especially with his gloves, the 24-year-old pulling off some excellent saves.
(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)1 of 12RB: Josh Knight (Hannover 96)
After becoming a fan favourite on loan at Peterborough, it was to London Road that Knight travelled when his City career ended in 2021 with just one senior appearance to his name. Last summer, the tough-tackling Fleckney-born defender made a surprise move to Hannover in the German second tier and he’s now competing for promotion to the Bundesliga. While primarily a centre-back, he played right-back on occasion when coming through the ranks at City, so that’s where he fits in our academy team.
(Image: Leila Coker/ Epic Action Imagery)2 of 12CB: Ben Nelson (Oxford United, on loan from Leicester City)
Long heralded as a star of the future, Nelson is now beginning to realise his promise. He was 16 when he first featured on the City bench, having been in the academy since he was a kid, and now 20, only a serious quad injury has stopped him getting lots of game-time with Championship side Oxford.
(Image: Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)3 of 12
