Claudio Ranieri a Leicester demigod forever. If someone’s not busy sculpting a statue of The Tinkerman to stand outside the King Power, there is something very wrong in the world.
How he masterminded Leicester City’s Premier League title win in 2015-16 will forever be a mystery to us. The man had Danny Drinkwater in a two-man central midfield (although he was alongside the first man on our list below — a man who essentially counted as three players in one).
We’re taking a look at every player signed for Leicester during the Ranieri era, what became of them, and where they are now. First up, the aforementioned cardio freak:
N’golo Kante
Allow us to remind you, just once more, that N’golo Kante cost Leicester around £5.5million. We really hope the fella who scouted N’golo (as well as Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy for that matter) Steve Walsh got a fat raise.
Kante is in Saudi Arabia in 2024, with Al-Ittihad. He, Fabinho, Karim Benzema, just chilling out in Saudi, picking up a humongous latter-career paycheck. To be fair, if anyone has earned it, Kante probably has. He’s won almost everything football has to offer.
We were a little bit surprised not to see him back in the UK, doing two or three casual laps of the London Marathon recently, but maybe the Frenchman is finally slowing down a little. Comes to the best of us.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 30 French players with the most Premier League appearances?
Yohan Benalouane
Do you remember Benalouane? You know? Benalouane. Tunisian centre-back signed from Parma? Played four league games in the Foxes’ the title-winning season? Missed out on a Premier League winner’s medal by one appearance?
No, yeah, fair enough. Benalouane plays for Novara in the third tier of Italian football, now. Their club badge looks a bit like a Euro 2020 graphic that might have been used for Denmark matches.
Gokhan Inler
First name like a Dragon Ball character, surname like revenue. Inler was kind of a big signing for the Foxes, having made a name for himself in Serie A with Napoli. Unfortunately, he couldn’t push N’golo Kante or Danny Drinkwater out of the team, so he scarpered after one season.
Played five league matches, though — medal secured.
According to the internet, Inler has been at Besiktas since last year without playing. Retirement incoming.
READ NEXT: 13 of Claudio Ranieri’s most memorable quotes: Tinkerman, Mary Poppins & Dilly Dong…
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to appear for Leicester in title-winning season?
Nathan Dyer
Dyer spent one season out on loan during his 11-year stint at Swansea, and he could not have chosen a better season or a better team to join. Maybe he knew something we didn’t.
Came in picked up a Prem title, said, thanks very much, lads, and skipped back to Swansea for the rest of his career. Retired in 2020.
Daniel Amartey
A man with an exceptionally square jaw, Daniel Amartey. Like a Ghanaian Buzz Lightyear. Amartey joined Leicester halfway through that season. Just scraped enough appearances for a medal. Nice.
He’s only 29, is Amartey, and just last season he left Leicester for Besiktas. It feels right, somehow.
Luis Hernandez
Cards on the table — we have absolutely no memory of Hernandez at Leicester. The Spanish centre-back came up through Real Madrid’s youth system and has played hundreds of games in the Segunda Division.
Only four in the Prem, though. Gutting. No medal for you. Back to Spain.
Hernandez is now in his second La Liga season with Cadiz, following a long stint at Malaga and a couple of years foray in Israel.
Ron-Robert Zieler
Zieler is a full German international, but it never really worked out for the goalkeeper at Leicester. He returned to Germany following his fairly sparse, singular season with the Foxes, and is now a regular with 2. Bungesliga side Hannover 96.
Nampalys Mendy
He just left Leicester last year, Mendy. You just missed him. The little Senegalese who, once-upon-a-time, drew comparisons to Claude Makelele, has hopped across the Channel to Lens in Ligue 1.
FUN FACT: Mendy and Bafetimbi Gomis are cousins.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name all 19 teams that Claudio Ranieri has managed?
Ahmed Musa
Musa has had one of football’s more interesting career paths. The guy has played in Nigeria, England, Russia, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia (before the current revolution), and Turkey.
The lightspeed winger is now in Turkey with Sivasspor. He owns at least two petrol stations in Nigeria — bet you didn’t know that.
Bartosz Kapustka
Kapustka played three cup games for Leicester during the 2016-17 season, and that was all she wrote.
The midfielder has ended up back in Poland, at Legia Warsaw via Belgium and Germany, and that’s about all we have to say on that subject.
Islam Slimani
Do you realise how polific Slimani was for Sporting CP before he signed for Leicester? The Algerian scored 48 league goals in 82 games. It’s no wonder the Foxes snapped him up to try and capitalise on their Prem success.
Slimani didn’t fair quite as well in the Premier League and, after various loans, a return to Sporting, stints in France, Turkey, and Brazil, he’s now with Mechelen in Belgium.
Wilfred Ndidi
Ndidi joined Ranieri’s Leicester in 2017 and simply never left. The Nigerian was signed to plug the physically tiny, yet, in footballing terms, massive hole left by N’golo Kante. He’s done that, by and large, and looks set for a return to the Premier League with the Foxes next season.
That’s if someone else doesn’t come knocking for his services in the meantime… rumours are flying.
Molla Wague
Don’t remember this one at all. Apparently Wague played one game for Leicester in the FA Cup… we could honestly just be getting trolled by our sources, here.
Wague was a centre-back. French-born, played for Mali at international level. Also had loan spells at Watford and Nottingham Forest. He retired at Seraing, in the second tier of Belgian football, in 2022.
Citation needed…
