The 6 players Leicester City signed with Jamie Vardy in 2012 – Where are they now? | OneFootball

Jamie Vardy has announced he is leaving Leicester City so this is a look at the players who joined the Foxes in the same transfer window.

It has been confirmed by Leicester City that club captain Jamie Vardy will be departing the club at the end of this season when his contract at the King Power Stadium expires.

The story of the former England international striker has been a remarkable one, rising from non-league and then finally playing in the Premier League is his mid-to-late-noughties before then starring in one of the most astonishing achievements ever as Leicester won the Premier League title in the 2015/16 season.

Since then he has also helped the Foxes win the FA Cup as well as the Community Shield to build up their trophy cabinet and he departs, as their tweet says, as their greatest ever player.

However, when he joined from Fleetwood Town for a fee believed to be in the region of £1 million, Leicester also brought in six others players and their careers have all gone down very different paths as we will analyse.

Jacob Blyth

The first man through the door in the summer of 2012 was young striker Jacob Blyth, who joined the club from Leamington. His Leicester career was littered with loans across the country without ever playing in the EFL for the Foxes.

After leaving the club in 2016, he began a journeyman career through the lower leagues and into non-league where he now finds himself at Wythenshawe Town in the Northern Premier League Division One West in the eighth tier of English football.

Ritchie De Laet

A Royal Antwerp academy graduate, Ritchie De Laet’s career saw him began as a typical loan journeyman before ending up at Leicester from Manchester United, where he had joined from Stoke City in 2009.

He played 115 times for the Foxes and famously won both a Premier League and Championship winners’ medal in 2016 having been loaned out to Middlesbrough that season. Having moved to Aston Villa and then had loan spells with Antwerp and Melbourne City, he rejoined Antwerp in 2019 and finished his career with his hometown club at the age of 35 last season.

Matty James

Signing on the same day as De Laet in mid-May, Matty James also joined from United at the age of 20 having not made an appearance for the Red Devils but spent time on loan across two seasons at Preston North End.

In the Championship and the first season in the Premier League with Leicester, James was excellent as a midfield metronome before injuries reduced him to just 36 appearances between 2015 and 2020, 18 of which came on loan at Barnsley where he then moved to again on loan in the 2020/21 campaign before signing for Coventry on loan, too, in the same season.

After three pretty much injury free seasons at Bristol City, 33-year-old Bacup-born James moved to Wrexham mid-way through the first-half of this season where he is now a key man in their push for automatic promotion to the Championship.

Marko Futacs

Hungarian striker Marko Futacs moved to England in 2009 from Werder Bremen to Portsmouth before his move to Leicester in 2012 on a free transfer. He made just nine appearances for the Foxes in the 2012/13 campaign with a loan move to Blackpool to finish the season before returning to Hungarian side Diosgyor in the second year of his Leicester contract.

He moved to Turkish Super Lig side Mersin Idmanyurdu for two years before spending two seasons with Croatian giants Hajduk Split, where he hit a career best 18 league goals in 26 games during the 2016/17 season. After leaving Hajduk, he joined Fehervar, formerly known as Videoton, for two seasons before short stings with Zalaegerszeg and Olimpija Ljubljana.

After a few months without a club following his departure from Olimpija, Futacs returned to Hungary and to the capital city with a successful spell at MTK Budapest and then on to Honved. He is now plying his trade for Hungarian lower league side Balatonlelle at the age of 35.

Zak Whitbread

A United States U20 international, Texas-born Zak Whitbread was once very highly-rated when coming through the academy at Liverpool but failed to make the grade in league football for the Reds, albeit did play in some UEFA Champions League qualifying games before his initial loan and then permanent departure to Millwall, where he would spend four seasons between 2006 and 2010.

After leaving The Den, Whitbread eventually moved on to Leicester in 2012 after two seasons spent with Norwich City. During his stint at the King Power Stadium, though, much like Blyth and Futacs, he couldn’t nail down a spot for a variety of reasons and left for local rivals Derby County on loan before a permanent move, which was also a short one at Pride Park. He finished his career three quarters of a season in League One with Shrewsbury Town before his retirement in 2016.

Anthony Knockaert

Perhaps the star signing of the lot, despite the impressive work and performances of both De Laet and James, would have to be the last signing of the summer transfer window, coming in early August, when Anthony Knockaert arrived at the King Power after spending the first three years of his career at Guingamp.

The France U21 international joined Leicester for a fee believed to be in the region of £2.5 million and he established himself as a key player for two seasons with Leicester as they eventually romped to the Championship title in 2014, having been play-off semi-final losers in a famous game against Watford in 2013 where Knockaert missed a late penalty before Troy Deeney clinched it for the Hornets.

After struggling in the Premier League with Leicester, he moved to Standard Liege for a season before returning to the Championship and once again starring in the second-tier, helping Brighton and Hove Albion gain automatic promotion to the top-flight in his second campaign. After a further two seasons with Brighton in the Premier League, he was loaned to Fulham for a year.

After then joining the Cottagers permanently in 2019, he only managed four appearances as they did eventually win promotion before being faded out of the club. He spent time out on loan with Nottingham Forest, Volos and Huddersfield Town before finishing his career last year after a stint at Ligue 2 side Valenciennes as they finished rock-bottom of the second-tier and were relegated to the Championnat National.