He “Couldn’t Break into the Team” at Leicester City, Now He’s One of Europe’s Top Goal Scorers
Leicester City Facing a Challenging 2024/25 Season, Likely Regretting the Loss of a Former Player
Leicester City dominated the Championship last season, but their current campaign has been far from easy.
Heading into the latest Premier League fixtures, Leicester faces a crucial match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, knowing a defeat could drop them into the relegation zone.
Last month, Steve Cooper was dismissed as manager of Leicester, with Ruud van Nistelrooy taking over.
The Dutchman has had a mixed start, suffering a heavy 4-0 defeat to Newcastle United in his most recent match.
Van Nistelrooy faces several challenges this season, particularly the lack of goals from players aside from the 37-year-old Jamie Vardy.
Odsonne Edouard has been disappointing for the Foxes and may see his loan deal cut short in January, while Patson Daka has only managed a single league goal in the 2024/25 season.
Had things unfolded differently, Leicester could have retained one of Europe’s top goal-scorers.
Back in the 2012/13 season, Leicester were competing in the Championship under manager Nigel Pearson and were pushing for promotion to the Premier League.
To strengthen their squad, they signed Harry Kane on loan from Tottenham Hotspur for the second half of the season.
However, Kane struggled to earn a regular starting spot, playing just 586 minutes across 15 appearances, scoring only twice.
In a 2020 interview with ITV, Kane reflected on his time at Leicester, admitting, “I ended up going to Leicester for six months and I couldn’t get into the team. I was on the bench a lot.
That was probably the time in my career that was the hardest. I was 19 and I was thinking:
‘If I can’t play for Leicester, in the Championship at the time, how am I going to get back and play for Tottenham?’”
Kane’s brief and disappointing spell at Leicester marked the last time he was loaned out by Tottenham, who began offering him more regular playing time starting in the 2013/14 season.
The following year, Kane truly blossomed, scoring an impressive 21 goals in 34 Premier League matches. From that point on, he never looked back.
Kane is now the second-highest goal scorer in Premier League history and has broken Wayne Rooney’s record for most international goals by an English player.
His prolific goal-scoring continued after his move to Bayern Munich in August 2023.
In hindsight, had Leicester kept Kane, the club might have had a top-class striker to help lead them through their current struggles.
