Football League World
·5 September 2023
Football League World
·5 September 2023
Leicester City suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday, as they were beaten by Hull City.
The Foxes came into the game with four wins out of four in the league and six wins out of six in all competitions.
Enzo Maresca couldn’t have asked for a better start to his managerial career at the King Power Stadium.
However, their aim to make it maximum wins before the international break was stopped, as Liam Rosenior’s Hull City claimed all three points.
The away side had Liam Delap to thank as he grabbed the only goal of the game in the 15th minute to seal the win.
It was disappointing for Leicester to end their run like this at home, but given the players they have lost and the amount of turnover at the club, it’s been a good start for Maresca’s men.
The Foxes haven’t got a game for two weeks now, with their next game after the international break being against Southampton on Friday, September 15th.
That said, while Leicester don’t have a game here at Football League World, we thought we would see how one of the club’s former players, Shinji Okazaki, is getting on since leaving the club.
Okazaki joined the Foxes in 2015 from German side FSV Mainz 05 and stayed at the club for four years.
The Japanese international played 137 times for Leicester, scoring 19 goals and registering eight assists in the process.
The striker was part of the team that famously won the Premier League despite all the odds under former manager Claudio Ranieri.
He was then a main part of the team that played in the Champions League, making it into the knockout stages.
Okazaki was an important player for Leicester, as Ranieri highly rated the forward and played him many times alongside fellow striker Jamie Vardy.
Okazaki didn’t set the world alight during his time at the King Power Stadium, but he did what was asked of him, more or less.
The forward scored goals, and looking back, Leicester will have hoped there were more, but he was still an important player at the club during his time there.
The change of manager at the club meant he lost his regular place in the team, and therefore, he left when his contract expired in 2019.
Okazaki may not be remembered by every Leicester fan, but he was a part of the team that shocked England when they won the league, and no one can take that away from him.
Surprisingly, Okazaki is still playing football despite being 37 years old. The forward left Leicester in 2019 and has played for several clubs since then.
He joined Malaga in 2019, but he left the club a month and a half later to join SD Huesca on a free transfer.
He stayed there for two years before he joined FC Cartagena for a season in 2021. In 2022, he signed for Belgian side Sint-Truiden and has been playing there ever since.
He has so far played 36 times for the club, scoring once and providing three assists. Okazaki signed an extension to his contract this month, meaning he is now contracted to the club until the summer of 2024.