St. Patrick’s Day: The Foxes’ Irish Connections
Many Irish players have plied their trade at Leicester over the years, right from City’s inception all the way through to the 21st century.
Here’s a few of those who have crossed the Irish Sea and made a significant mark in the Club’s history…
David Connolly
The well-travelled David Connolly signed for Micky Adams' Leicester City from West Ham United in 2004 for a reported fee of £500,000. The striker finished his first season as the Club's top scorer, netting 13 times in 46 league games as the Foxes finished 15th in their first season back in the Championship.
His second City campaign started in similar fashion, netting four goals in two games, including a hat-trick against Stoke City, before joining newly-promoted Wigan Athletic in the Premier League for a reported fee of £2M. City went on to finish in 16th position, while Connolly scored one Premier League goal as the Latics stayed up in their first top-flight season under Paul Jewell.
Connolly played for a total of 13 clubs across his 21-year career, including Wolverhampton Wanderers, Portsmouth and Southampton. He was actually born in Willesden, England and never played for an Irish club, instead starting out at Watford, where he made his senior debut. But that didn’t stop him making 41 appearances for the Green Army, scoring nine times before international retirement in 2004.
He ended his playing career at AFC Wimbledon in 2015 with a record of 178 goals in 463 league appearances across the Premier League and Football League. However, it was in Dutch Eerste Divisie where he enjoyed his best goalscoring spell, netting 42 goals in 48 games for Excelsior while on loan from Eredivisie side Feyenoord.
Alan Maybury
Leicester signed defender Alan Maybury from Hearts after a four-year stint on Tynecastle, linking up with former manager Craig Levein in the East Midlands. Starting his career at Leeds United, he was part of the team that won the 1997 FA Youth Cup and then featured in the 3-3 draw with Lazio in the UEFA Champions League group stage during the 2000/01 season.
Maybury, who could also operate as a midfielder as well as a full-back on either side, made his City debut in a 1-1 draw away at Preston North End in January 2005. The Dubliner went on to make the most City league appearances of any Irishman, turning out 97 times for the Foxes, including 83 Championship games.
After exactly three years as a Fox, which included a loan at Aberdeen, he departed for Colchester United, before going on to return to Scotland for three further spells in the Scottish Premiership.
As for his Ireland exploits, Maybury turned out for Republic of Ireland’s Under-21s and B team before making his senior debut in a friendly against the Czech Republic in 1998. In total, the versatile defender has 10 senior caps to his name, all between 1998 and 2005.
David Kelly
Like David Connolly 15 years later, David Kelly had been signed from West Ham United, costing the Club a reported fee of £300,000 in March 1990. His Foxes career got off to the perfect start as he netted seven times in 10 league games at the back end of the 1989/90 campaign.
The striker then endeared himself to the Blue Army during the following season, when his 14 league goals helped City remain in the Second Division. No Irishman has scored more goals for Leicester than Kelly, who ended his Foxes career with a total of 25 goals in 72 games, 22 of them coming in the league.
He left Brian Little’s side for Newcastle United in December 1991, before going on to play for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sunderland and Sheffield United, as well as scoring for Tranmere Rovers in a 2-1 defeat by Leicester in the 2000 League Cup Final. His 19-year career came to a close at Mansfield in 2002.
For a 10-year period until 1997, he also wore the green and white of Ireland, scoring a hat-trick on his debut - a 5-0 victory over Israel at Lansdowne Road in November 1987, aged 21. Another player born in England, his Irish father qualified him to represent the country for whom he would go on to score nine times in 26 games.
Under Jack Charlton, Kelly made the squads for the three major tournaments: UEFA EURO 1988 and the FIFA World Cup in both 1990 and 1994. His final appearance came from the bench in the second leg of the 1998 World Cup Play-Off defeat to Belgium.
Gerry Daly
Gerry Daly holds the record for the most Ireland caps by a player who has represented Leicester City, making 48 appearances for his country between 1973 and 1986.
The midfielder's international debut came in a friendly against Poland and he then scored a penalty in Ireland’s 1-1 draw with England at Wembley three years later. His first competitive goal came during a 3-3 draw away at Denmark in a European Championship qualifying game in 1978.
Throughout his Ireland career, Daly scored crucial goals, such as against England in the 1978 EURO qualifiers and versus the Netherlands in a 2-1 World Cup qualifier victory, in 1980. Daly also converted a penalty on his final Ireland appearance - a 1-1 draw in a friendly with Uruguay at Lansdowne Road. His 13 goals in 48 games rank Daly amongst the highest scoring midfielders in Irish history.
Back to his club career, the playmaker turned out for Manchester United and Derby County over 100 times respectively during the 1970s and 80s, which is when he won the majority of his national team caps. It was in 1983 that Daly had a temporary spell at City, playing 17 times for the Club while on loan from Coventry City and scoring once, before a permanent move to Birmingham City.
The latter stages of his career took him further down the Football League pyramid, playing for Shrewsbury Town, Stoke City and Doncaster Rovers before finishing his career at non-league Telford United in 1991, where he became manager.
James Macauley
Just after the conclusion of the First World War, James Lowry MacAuley became the first Irishman to play for the Club under the title of Leicester City. It was June 1919 that Leicester Fosse became City and ‘Jim’ Macauley would join in the same year, making 19 appearances for the Club and scoring two goals.
Born in Portarlington, Ireland in 1889, he scored one goal for his national team. In his homeland, meanwhile, Macauley lifted the Irish Cup in 1909 and won the Irish League in 1910, earning him a move to Glasgow Rangers the same year.
His most prolific spells in front of goal came in the Second Division for Huddersfield (32 goals in 95 games) and the previously all-conquering Preston North End (23 goals in 59 games), where Macauley’s side finished as runners-up in the Second Division (1914/15).
During the war, he moved back to Ireland and guested for Belfast Celtic and, following his 12-month stint at City, the inside forward turned out for Grimsby Town, Lancaster Town and Morecambe, before his retirement in the 1920s.
Tommy Shanks
At the start of the 20th century, Tommy Shanks was another Irish national to play for Leicester Fosse from 1906 to 1909, while Mick Cochrane was the first Irishman to feature for Fosse in 1901.
Born in New Ross in 1880, Shanks started out at local club Wexford before his senior career first took him to the Midlands to play for Derby West End, Derby Fosse and then Derby County in 1898.
At the turn of the century, the inside forward moved to the capital, where he twice turned out for Brentford, with a prolific year of 28 goals in 44 games at Woolwich Arsenal in between. It was that form which earned Shanks the first of three national team appearances, starting with his debut against Scotland in 1903. All three of his caps came before he joined Leicester.
It was after a second spell at Brentford that Shanks headed back up to the Midlands to play for Leicester, where he scored 16 times in 57 appearances. Crucially, he scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory against Stoke City, which earned Leicester’s first promotion to the top division, in April 1908. Further clubs included Leyton Orient, Clapham Orient and York City, before the outbreak of the First World War curtailed his career.