‘A Group That Loved Being Together’ – Fuchs’ 15/16 Memories

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‘A Group That Loved Being Together’ – Fuchs’ 15/16 Memories

Christian Fuchs is coming back to Leicester this month – to celebrate our unimaginable Premier League title glory a decade ago – and the former full-back still finds it difficult to put into words the magnitude of that achievement.

2026-05-15T15:00+01:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

15 May, 2026

‘A Group That Loved Being Together’ – Fuchs’ 15/16 Memories

Sam Stevens

2026-05-15T15:00+01:00

‘A Group That Loved Being Together’ – Fuchs’ 15/16 Memories

Sam Stevens

2026-05-15T15:00+01:00

‘A Group That Loved Being Together’ – Fuchs’ 15/16 Memories

Sam Stevens

2026-05-15T15:00+01:00

‘A Group That Loved Being Together’ – Fuchs’ 15/16 Memories

Sam Stevens

2026-05-15T15:00+01:00

There are certain stories in football that feel almost too improbable to retell. Claudio Ranieri’s relegation favourites, 5000/1 outsiders for the title, lifting English football’s most prestigious prize is one such fable. And yet, for those who lived it, the memories remain vivid – moments that refuse to fade, however surreal they still feel.

Ahead of our 5000/1 Anniversary Match, staged at King Power Stadium on 30 May, Fuchs – now manager of Newport County – has cast his mind back to the best season of his life, the year which changed everything. There’s no better place to begin than the beginning, and even that had its own unique quirks.

Having signed for Nigel Pearson’s Foxes, before long, a twist threw Fuchs’ new venture into doubt. The Manager who had signed him was gone and soon to be replaced by Claudio Ranieri. There was scepticism in the air but, for our new full-back, uncertainty too. Would his move to the Premier League be about to unravel?

“I was on holidays in Antigua and my agent calls me,” Fuchs recalls. “He's like: ‘Are you sitting down?’ What are you doing? I'm like: ‘I’m at the pub having a drink!’ He goes: ‘You better sit down!’ And then he told me that Pearson’s gone, so I had a drink!

“It was weird because he was the man that I spoke to about his vision, how he sees me in the team and everything – and then he’s suddenly gone. But it was also not knowing who's next, right, what the next Manager’s plans are. As we all know, it turned out well!”

Fuchs clung onto the way the Club had pursued his signature for reassurance. It wasn’t yet clear how this new management structure would affect his career move, having joined from German outfit Schalke earlier that summer, but Leicester had shown – importantly – that they really wanted him in their squad.

“I knew about the great escape and everything,” he adds. “My goal was always to play in the Premier League. Leicester was the one club that showed the most interest. They were very eager to sign me, with Steve Walsh. That commitment gave me a lot of confidence. As a player, you want to join a club that wants you. It’s not just that they want to sign you, but they actually want to, and they are communicating with you. That was, for me, a big thing.”

Any fears Fuchs might have had, that he would find himself out of favour under a new Manager, appeared to be coming true early on in the campaign. Ranieri initially preferred Academy graduate Jeff Schlupp at left-back, with Fuchs watching on from the sidelines.

Mind you, City, despite making a stunning start, were struggling to keep clean sheets. Albeit thrilled with results, Ranieri was becoming frustrated and, eight weeks into the campaign, he looked at his options. He joked in the media that he’d buy the players all a pizza each if we earned just one shutout – and that seemed to do the trick. Well, that and bringing Fuchs – plus Danny Simpson – into the backline.

“I came from a club, Schalke, where I played Champions League every year,” Fuchs remembers. “Then, coming to Leicester City, I’m not even playing at all. I thought: ‘I’m in the wrong movie here right now’. But I'm a team player, I was always a team player, I put my head down, I worked hard.

“Steve Walsh helped me a lot there, he gave me advice and kept me calm as well. I was just waiting for my chance and this opportunity came against Norwich, where I played, and I think I took my chance really well. Ever since then I kept starting the games.

“A clean sheet came with a pizza, right? I think Claudio just missed his pizza too much, so he wanted us to get this clean sheet. That was the actual reason, the pizza was the reason!”

Ranieri fulfilled his promise, although he did make his players work for their pizza one last time, taking them into the city to make their own at a local pizzeria. Behind the lively press conferences and iconic lines, though, was a tactical nous which would provide the foundations for a football fairy tale.

“Football is about simplicity,” Fuchs explains. “Make it as simple and visual as possible for players. Claudio had this one thing that he said: ‘Protect the castle’. It sounds funny, but the castle was our 18-yard box and our main job as to protect the castle.

“We knew, up front, we had a lot of speed, we had a lot of goals in our team, we had confidence in the game plan, to protect the castle, trying to catch out teams in transition. It worked all season long. Nobody actually figured us out.”

With Jamie Vardy smashing in the goals, Riyad Mahrez leaving defenders for dust, N’Golo Kanté tearing up midfield, Leicester were making a name for themselves. The secret, in Fuchs’ view, wasn’t only evident on the field – it was inside the changing room as well.

“There was no jealousy,” he explains. “It was genuine happiness for anybody. Vards, scoring the 11th consecutive goal, that was one of the highest moments in the season. Everybody came together, everybody has happy for him.

“The main thing as well is that the changing room was just a fun environment. You couldn't wait to come back the next day and be with the lads again. It was just a lot of enjoyment and happiness.”

He played his own part in that famous record for Vardy, too – explained in his own self-deprecating way. With the eyes of the football world locked on Filbert Way, Vardy – the man who’d climbed from non-league to the top flight – was one goal away from breaking Dutch legend Ruud van Nistelrooy’s astonishing record – scoring in 10 games in a row.

When the ball landed at Fuchs’ feet in the 24th minute, against van Nistelrooy’s former club, Manchester United no less, he was on the right-hand side of the pitch. The complete opposite of his natural habitat. We’ll let him pick up the story.

“Yeah, that was good as well!” Fuchs smiles. “Obviously they’re memories that you always look back to. He made a great run and I catch myself on the wrong side of the pitch and I was like: ‘What do I do with that ball on this side?! Let's just get rid of it!’ It happened to fall straight onto Vards’ feet and he slotted it away as always.”

As autumn turned to winter, people began to wonder. Are Leicester City genuine title contenders? Inside the changing room, though, the mindset remained unchanged – even as the Foxes sat top at Christmas. A year earlier, they’d been bottom.

“I remember they compared the two league tables on Sky Sports,” Fuchs says. “It was, to be honest, a very proud moment. Seeing what we have achieved so far that season and where we were. The comparison was just some sort of a confirmation how good it was. We didn’t look at it with pressure. Actually, all we did is, we enjoyed ourselves. That's all we did, all season long, without the pressure that we didn’t have to win.”

So, as the title race hurtled on, and Leicester remained at the summit, did the pressure ever tell? Did it ever creep into the changing room?

“I can only talk for myself,” Fuchs adds. “For me, actually, never. I never saw us in a position where we were the ones that have to win and go on and win the league. There were teams like the Tottenhams, the Arsenals, whoever, they were doomed with having to win and not losing out to Leicester City. For us, it was: ‘Let's keep the momentum going as long as possible and see what happens at the end of the season.”

As we rattle through some of the wins which defined our 15/16 season, we move past January's 1-0 success at Tottenham Hotspur a little too quickly for Fuchs’ liking. It was Robert Huth’s looping header which sealed the points at White Hart Lane, laid on by a familiar face once again.

He interjects: “But now you’re not talking about the great delivery from the corner?! Come on! The header was great too, a bullet!”

Back on track, we’re onto the topic of that double-header of wins over Liverpool and Man City in February which supercharged the title bid.

“Winning at Man City is always something special,” he continued. “And with how we did it, we really outperformed them, we did so well. It’s something special every time you go to the Etihad and take away three points. I didn't believe in it (winning the title), because it was not our responsibility to win it.

“Our responsibility was to go and give our best and win. That's everybody's responsibility all the time. We’re getting paid to win, we’re not getting paid to play, but it was not our responsibility to actually go on and win the whole thing. I think that's the big difference. For us, we didn't have the pressure of winning the title.”

And then came that night, 2 May, 2016. We’d just picked up an admirable point at Manchester United, at the Theatre of Dreams, thanks to Wes Morgan. We’d got through Vardy’s suspension, with four points from a possible six. If second-placed Tottenham failed to win at Chelsea, the 2015 champions, we’d succeed the Blues as English football’s newest rulers. Many of the squad headed over to Vardy’s house to watch the action from west London on TV, but a topsy-turvy clash kept us all on our toes.

We all know the story of how Spurs were on course for victory, only for Gary Cahill and then Eden Hazard to rescue a point for Chelsea – and anoint Leicester champions. Every Foxes fan has their own story of how that night transpired for them and so does Fuchs. All he really remembers, though, is the tension.

“Yeah, that night was… intense,” he recalls. “As I’ve said many times, watching the game, the Tottenham-Chelsea game, was probably the toughest 90 minutes I've never played. As much as you want to sit down, you cannot. You cannot.

“It's too emotional, there's too much at stake. You cannot find the right position to sit, to stand, to whatever, lay down, I don't know. I have no clue. I just went through so many emotions that day that it's hard for me to recollect what I actually did, other than watching the game and praying for the best. The final score being 2-2, it was the ultimate scenario that we could have wished for that night.

“It gives you so much pride. What we actually achieved, not only for the Club, but for the whole community, for everybody, that gives you even more. More in the sense that what you actually can affect with people, to see how happy they were, how happy we made people. That's the one part that, for me, was incredible.”

Lifting the Premier League trophy, days later, is something he still struggles to articulate: “It’s really hard to describe that feeling. It's hard to describe anything. It's just the ultimate... I don't know how to describe it.

“I would not go as far as [saying it beats] seeing my children being born, I would say that's still a step above, but it comes very close.”

A decade on, the connection to Leicester remains as strong as ever.

He says: “I'm very thankful. Having been able to not only go through the highs, but also a couple of lows, to experience this with a group of people that are dedicated, that are on the same wavelength, that care, that meant a lot to me… I hated to leave, but I know that's a part of the game. Not everything lasts forever. Leicester lost a player, but my family and I, we are lifelong Leicester fans now.”

And as we prepare to reunite that iconic squad, the emotion is already building. The band is getting back together again for a 10-year celebration.

“I was there recently because we were hosting our tournament with the academy and I was on the pitch down there,” Fuchs adds. “Just walking out and inhaling the atmosphere, even though there were no people there… well, there were parents there, but standing on the pitch again, that’s another moment I can’t describe to you because it didn't happen for such a long time. Then being there again, it was it was a very happy moment for me.

“Coming back is exciting. It’s like bringing the old crew together again.”

Click HERE to be there for our 5000/1 Anniversary Match, with net proceeds supporting important work within our communities through the VS Foundation with funds raised to benefit Leicester City in the Community and its work across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

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