Leicester’s ultimate top ten players ever: Defenders, full list and honourable mentions

Our Top Ten Leicester City defenders.

1.   Adam Black

2.   Steve Walsh

3.   Matt Elliott

4.   Wes Morgan

5.   Graham Cross

6.   Richie Norman

7.   John O’Neill

8.   David Nish

9.   John Sjoberg

10. Steve Whitworth

There are so many players who could have made our list. In terms of full-backs, Dennis Rofe (324 appearances between 1972-80), Peter Rodrigues (171 between 1966-70), Gary Mills (232 between 1989-94), Len Chalmers (204 between 1958-65), Simon Grayson (229 between 1992-97) and Paul Konchesky (155 between 2011-15) were unlucky to miss out but, it seemed to me, the claims of Nish and Whitworth are greater. 

In terms of centre-backs, honourable mentions go to Ian King, Jeff Blockley and Jonny Evans. 

Ian King was a ball-playing centre half who played a pivotal role in Leicester’s four early 1960s cup finals He moved to Leicester from Hearts in 1957. He fought, and eventually won, a battle with England squad member Tony Knapp for the Leicester number five jersey and made a total of 297 appearances for the Foxes including 244 league games all in Division One. He left Filbert Street for Charlton Athletic after losing his place in the team to John Sjoberg.

Leicester-born Jeff Blockley, signed by Jimmy Bloomfield from Arsenal in February 1975 played a big role in keeping Leicester up that season and his position in the side was only halted when a Chris Garland punch in a training ground bust up broke the centre-half’s jaw. 

Jonny Evans was probably the bargain of the century when he moved from West Bromwich Albion to the King Power Stadium in 2018 for a paltry £3.5 million. The classy former Manchester United centre half would probably have been in our top ten but for injury which ruled him out for substantial portions of his Leicester career. He made only 121 league appearances in his five seasons with the club.

In the top 50 Leicester defenders we would also include a number of names familiar to many Foxes’ fans – such as Robert Huth, Pontus Kamark, Larry May, Tommy Williams, Russell Osman, Ricardo Ricardo Pereira, Spencer Prior, Frank Sinclair, Christian Fuchs, Gerry Taggert, and Harry Maguire. Less well known is David Jones, a Welsh international full back who played 238 games for City between 1933 and 1947. 

For obvious reasons that Foxes fans will understand all too well, Ben Chilwell and Wesley Fofana were not considered for this list.

Next week we look at Leicester midfielders.