And what a signing it was. Small in stature he might have been but Muzzy blossomed into a talented scheming midfielder for the Foxes playing 319 games and scoring 47 goals, some of which, as the YouTube video above attests, were very spectacular. He was a key part of the side that won promotion through the play-offs and, together with his midfield teammates Neil Lennon, Garry Parker and Robbie Savage, the team flourished in the top-flight for five years, and won the League Cup twice, until O’Neill jumped ship to go to Celtic in 2000. Muzzy also won nine international caps with Turkey, his eligibility achieved through his Turkish Cypriot father.
Muzzy loyally stayed on with the club for another four years, through the traumatic years of Peter Taylor, relegation and administration, despite opportunities to leave. He was one of the financial beneficiaries of the club’s desperate, and deeply flawed, attempt to keep the squad together in the wake of O’Neill’s departure. Izzet’s salary was more than tripled from £10,000 a week to £35,000. As he subsequently wrote in his autobiography: ‘I received a pay slip that contained numbers on it that were so astronomically huge, so ridiculously large, that I used to look at it and laugh’.
Following the Foxes’ relegation from the Premier League in 2004 Muzzy eventually left, joining former teammates Savage and Emile Heskey at Birmingham City. However, a serious knee injury curtailed his playing time and he retired from the game in 2006.
More on Thursday.