Leicester City Under-21s are the former reserve team of

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

. The team mainly consists of under-21 players at the club, although senior players occasionally play in the reserve side, for instance when they are recovering from injury. The Under-21s team play in

Premier League 2 The Professional Development League is a system of Football in England, English youth association football, football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Th ...

. Leicester City F.C. Academy are the youth team of

directed by Jon Rudkin. Leicester City's academy has held Category 1 status under the

Elite Player Performance Plan The Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) is a youth development scheme initiated by the Premier League. The intention of the EPPP is to improve the quality and quantity of home-grown players produced by top English clubs. Measures introduced by t ...

since July 2013.

History

Although less famous than the likes of

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

's youth systems, the Leicester City Academy has been one of the more productive academies in the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East ...

. England internationals

Peter Shilton Peter Leslie Shilton (born 18 September 1949) is an English former professional association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. His 31-year career included spells at 11 clubs and he has the uni ...

Gary Lineker Gary Winston Lineker ( ; born 30 November 1960) is an English Sports broadcasting, sports broadcaster and former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Lineker is the only player t ...

David Nish David John Nish (born 26 September 1947) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender. Nish's £225,000 transfer from Leicester City to Derby County in 1972 broke the British transfer record.BBC NewsWere you there.. ...

, Steve Whitworth,

Emile Heskey Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey (born 11 January 1978) is an English former professional footballer who currently serves as head of football development of Leicester City Women. Playing as a striker, he made more than 500 appearances in the Foo ...

Ben Chilwell Benjamin James Chilwell (born 21 December 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a left-back or left wing-back for club Chelsea, and the England national team. Beginning his career at Leicester City, Chilwell had a loan spe ...

and

Harvey Barnes Harvey Lewis Barnes (born 9 December 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Newcastle United. Barnes joined Leicester City at the age of nine before signing his first professional contract as well as mak ...

as well as

Don Revie Donald George Revie (10 July 1927 – 26 May 1989) was an English footballer and manager. He is best known for managing Leeds United from 1961 until 1974, winning the Football League First Division twice and the FA Cup once, before being the Eng ...

, who played for and managed England all began their careers with the ''Foxes''.

Frank McLintock Francis McLintock (born 28 December 1939) is a Scottish former footballer, football manager and businessman. He also worked as a sports agent and football pundit in his later life. He began his career in Scottish Junior football with Shawfiel ...

, a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

international, former footballer of the year and a double winning captain with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, who was described by

Bob Paisley Robert Paisley (23 January 1919 – 14 February 1996) was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. ...

as the "player of the decade" at the end of the 1970s also came through the ''Foxes''' ranks. Leicester's all-time top appearance makers

Graham Cross Graham Frederick Cross (born 15 November 1943) is a former professional footballer and cricketer. He is the record appearance holder for Leicester City, making 600 appearances for the club in all competitions (as Community Shield now considered ...

and

Sep Smith Septimus Charle Smith (15 March 1912 – 28 July 2006) was an English footballer who played as a creative wing half and originally as an inside forward. Born in Whitburn, County Durham, in 1912, he was the seventh son born in his family, hen ...

were also among notable products of the academy. On 8 April 2013, Leicester City Under 21s won the newly formed 2012–13 Professional Development League 2 with a game to go, qualifying for the knockout stage. However they exited the national play-off at the semi-final stage, after losing 3–2 to

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. On 26 May 2013, the Leicester City Development Squad & Academy won the

HKFC International Soccer Sevens The HKFC Soccer Sevens or Hong Kong Soccer Sevens, known as the HKFC Standard Chartered Soccer Sevens for sponsorship purposes, is an annual invitational seven-a-side football tournament which is organised and hosted by Hong Kong Football Club. ...

cup, beating Newcastle United Reserves and Academy 2–0 thanks to goals from Michael Cain and Harry Panayiotou. The latter also went on to win player of the tournament. On 4 July, it was announced that Leicester City's academy had been awarded category one status, the highest level under the Premier League's

. By finishing 6th in the

2013–14 Professional U21 Development League The 2013–14 Professional U21 Development League (League 1 referred to as the Barclays Under 21 Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the second season of the Professional Development League system. There were 42 participating teams in the ...

, Leicester City U21s qualified for the inaugural, 2014–15 edition, of the

Premier League International Cup The Premier League International Cup is an English football competition for under-23 teams from across Europe. It was designed to provide players in English Category One academies with the opportunity to match themselves against other elite Euro ...

, being drawn in Group C with

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

, Benfica and

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

. On 24 November 2014, Leicester City U21s became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals, after defeating Schalke 04 and Benfica, both 2–0 at the

King Power Stadium King Power Stadium is a football stadium in the city of Leicester, East Midlands, England, and the home of Leicester City. The stadium opened in 2002 as the Walkers Stadium and has a capacity of 32,259. The club attracted worldwide attenti ...

. After having almost been relegated from Premier League 2 Division 1 in 2016–2017, Leicester Under 23s went on to finish third in PL2, while also getting to the semi-finals of the Premier League Cup. In addition, several of the under 23's gained first team experience under manager

Claude Puel Claude Jacques Puel (; born 2 September 1961) is a French football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He spent his entire playing career with Monaco, before becoming manager of the club, leading them to the league title in his ...

with

and

Hamza Choudhury Hamza Dewan Choudhury (; born 1 October 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder or right-back for club Sheffield United, on loan from Leicester City. Born in England, he plays for the Bangladesh national team. ...

playing prominent roles towards the end of the 2017–2018 season. This subsequently lead to

gaining his first England Under 21s cap during the Toulan Tournament. On 13 June 2020 the club announced that long-serving coach Trevor Peake was stepping down from his role as Under-18s coach after 17 years of service. Former under 12–16 Youth Development Phase Coach Adam Barradell took responsibility of the Under-18s during the summer of 2020. Having been in Premier League 2 Division 1 since its establishment as part of the

Leicester Under 23s were relegated to Division 2 on 10 May 2021 following a season that saw a number of under 23's players promoted to train with the first team due to a substantial injury list. However, following an expansion of Premier League 2 Division 2 to 14 clubs, Leicester Under 23s were reinstated to the top division for the upcoming 2021–2022 season despite finishing second from bottom during the previous season. On 24 April 2023, after losing 1–4 against Everton, Leicester Under 23s were relegated to Division 2.

Players

Under-21s

Out on loan

Under-18s

Staff

Notable graduates

Current Leicester City players in bold. Year of senior debut given in parentheses.

Honours

U21

* Premier League 2 Division 1 **Runner-up: 2019–2020 *U21 Professional Development League 2 North Division ** Winners (1): 2012–2013

Academy

**Shield Winners (1): 2011–2012 **Cup Winners (2): 2012–2013, 2016–2017 **Plate Winners (1): 2013–2014 *U15 Premier League Category 2 National Trophy **Winners (1): 2012–2013 *U16 Premier League Cup **Winners (1): 2023-2024

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leicester City Development Squad and Academy Reserves and Academy Football academies in England Premier League International Cup UEFA Youth League teams