Goals, Trophies & Awards - Iheanacho’s Prosperous Leicester City Career To Date
It’s difficult not to rate 2020/21 as Kelechi Iheanacho’s best season in Leicester City colours. Numbers-wise, his goal tally has never been higher, while his influence on big matches was there for all to see.
Match-winning moments aplenty, the Nigeria international took on the role of no.1 goal-getter across all competitions, netting 19 times, though Jamie Vardy remained as City’s top scorer in the Premier League with 15 goals to his name.
Since making his bow as an 82nd minute substitute for Matty James during Leicester’s 4-3 defeat to Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on the opening day of the 2017/18 season, Iheanacho has gone on to score 40 goals for the Club.
And his first Premier League strike at King Power Stadium would come in the reverse fixture against the Gunners, in the final home game of the season.
The 24-year-old attacker also scored back-to-back FA Cup braces, netting both goals in the third round replay success over Fleetwood Town, before another double at Peterborough United 11 days later.
After a total of 10 goals in his first two seasons on Filbert Way, the striker started the 2019/20 campaign in a rich vein of form, finding the net during the first four games he featured in between September and December 2019.
A 90th-minute winner at home to Everton was the highlight of that run, with his record standing at six goals in eight games by the turn of the year and soon hitting double figures in a single campaign for the first time.
Iheanacho’s season-on-season improvement continued in 2020/21, though his maiden Premier League goal did not arrive until February, coming away at Fulham and sealing a fifth win in a row in all competitions.
Meanwhile, in the UEFA Europa League, two strikes against SC Braga had helped City to their biggest-ever European win (4-0), after also striking during the Club’s debut in the competition against Zorya Luhansk.
Idolised by the Blue Army, his signature goal celebrations became an increasingly familiar sight during the New Year.
Five goals in three Premier League games quickly became an impressive nine in seven, equalising against Burnley with a stunning effort to rescue a point at Turf Moor, before providing another leveller at Brighton & Hove Albion three days later, a game the Foxes would go on to win.
Then came the Nigerian’s first hat-trick in a Leicester City shirt, against Sheffield United, resulting in a scoreline that equalled the Club’s biggest Premier League home win - 5-0.
And the striker was soon picking up the EA SPORTS Premier League Player of the Month award for March after a stellar month.
In late April, fresh from signing a new contract, Iheanacho wrapped up victory over West Bromwich Albion with the third goal of a whirlwind first half at King Power Stadium.
His second goal in four days was a ferocious strike that sent another three points Leicester’s way, overcoming Crystal Palace 2-1 and later named as Goal of the Season at the Club's End of Season Awards.
Although 13 of his goals came in the league, Iheanacho’s previous campaign will undoubtedly be remembered most fondly for his contributions to City’s first-ever FA Cup triumph.
When the fifth round tie at home to Brighton looked set for an additional 30 minutes at King Power Stadium, the forward was first to react to a quickly-taken corner, heading home a last-gasp winner.
Opening and closing the scoring against Manchester United in the last eight helped secure a spot in the semi-finals of the prestigious competition for the first time since 1982, as Leicester triumphed 3-1 on Filbert Way.
Rodgers had shifted to a new formation and rather than competing with Vardy for a starting spot, Iheanacho now partnered City’s talismanic forward in attack, and their partnership blossomed.
Their link-up was evident against in the semi-final clash with Southampton at Wembley Stadium as Vardy’s clever movement, pace and vision set up Iheanacho for the only goal of the game.
Also starting the showpiece event at the national stadium, Iheanacho's potency in front of goal had taken the Foxes to the final and he would soon be celebrating bringing the FA Cup trophy back to Leicester for the first time in the Club’s history.
Having already got off the mark for the new campaign, scoring the late penalty that secured the FA Community Shield, Iheanacho will be hoping to continue that vein of form in the Premier League and Europe.