Choudhury’s Challenge – How Hamza Rose To Prominence At LCFC
Wednesday 20 September, 2023 is a date Hamza Choudhury will always look back on fondly. Leading the team out at Carrow Road, the Academy graduate captained his boyhood club in a senior league fixture for the first time. Taking home three points at the end of it made that night in Norfolk even more special.
Just months earlier, the midfielder had embarked on a season-long loan spell away from the Club. Joining Watford last term, Choudhury became an instant hit at Vicarage Road, commanding a regular spot within the Hornets' midfield. Although enjoying his time in Hertfordshire, he always had ambitions of a return to King Power Stadium.
The Loughborough-born midfielder is no stranger to loan spells that have enhanced his development. As a young player progressing through the ranks, the Academy graduate headed to Burton Albion back in 2015. A successful first stint in their League 1 promotion-winning campaign led to Choudhury returning the following season.
Some 28 appearances later, he was at back at City and thrust into First Team action for the first time by late November. Choudhury’s appearance for the closing minutes of a 2-1 home win over Tottenham Hotspur marked his senior debut.
A proud moment for him and his family, he followed up that milestone by featuring in all of the final seven matches of the Premier League season, registering an assist during a memorable triumph at home to Arsenal in Leicester’s final home game of 2017/18.
More regular minutes arrived from there on in, while also captaining City’s Development Squad and making appearances for England Under-21s on the international stage.
His maiden Premier League goal, meanwhile, at Newcastle United, brought festive cheer on New Year’s Day 2020, with further growth across the Club’s first European campaign in two decades, opening his UEFA Europa League account at AEK Athens and featuring in all eight UEFA Europa League matches.
The season ended with FA Cup glory. A historic day for everyone at the Club, lifting the prestigious trophy for the first time, Choudhury’s substitute appearance in the final at Wembley Stadium saw out a 1-0 win over Chelsea, six years on from reaching the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup with the Foxes. This time, he’d gone one better and a childhood dream was realised.
Five months later, Choudhury captained the Foxes in a winning League Cup Fourth Round tie against Brighton & Hove Albion. Yet another special landmark for the Leicester fan turned Foxes hero.
Time with the Hornets then gave him a taste of the rigours of Championship football; it prepared him for what was to come. Returning to Leicester, pre-season brought the arrival of Enzo Maresca and Choudhury was a key figure in the preparations for this campaign.
Out in Thailand and Singapore, part of the Club’s summer tour of Southeast Asia, the 25-year-old quickly got the grips with the style and system that Maresca looked to implement, with Choudhury one of the players deployed as a right-back come deep-lying central midfielder, a new role he took on board moving into the beginnings of the Championship.
Holding an association with the Club which dates all the way back to 2005, when he signed as a seven-year-old, the journey from Academy hopeful to First Team regular is a well-trodden path at Leicester City. But one which takes many years of hard graft.
Now edging towards a century of LCFC appearances, it’s time for Choudhury – becoming an experienced head within the dressing room – to kick on and help the Foxes achieve the season’s ultimate goal of promotion.