The Leicester Man With More Trophies Than Goals

There are four players who have won the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Community Shield with Leicester City:

The Legends: Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel are obviously in this category. Surely no explanation is needed. Since this is my list, I’m going to include Marc Albrighton in this group as well.

The other one: Daniel Amartey. Amartey has won three pieces of silverware with the Foxes in spite of not having yet played 4,000 league minutes in a Leicester shirt. He’s scored two goals for the club and featured in over ten league games just twice (24 in 2016/17 and 12 in 2020/21).

I started thinking about Amartey when I was watching a highlight reel of Vardy goals. It is shocking how many times the Ghana man has been on the pitch for big moments. I don’t think of him as having been heavily involved, but the video doesn’t lie. I also don’t recall ever saying much about him, so maybe it’s time we rectified that.

The Arrival:

Amartey joined Leicester in January of 2016 from F.C. Copenhagen. At the time, he was an extremely athletic right-back who could fill in at center-half and defensive midfield. He was most famous for making an absolutely ridiculous run from the back to win a late penalty for the Byens Hold.

No, really. That was his top highlight prior to joining the Foxes. Good run, though.

2015/16 Premier League Champion:

After his January arrival, Amartey started just one match for the rest of the season and came on as a substitute in four others. Strangely, his only start was his debut, a 1-0 win over Norwich at the end of February. After playing 77 minutes that match, he saw only 27 minutes for the rest of the season. It would be disingenuous to say he had a huge impact that year, but he contributed to 4 wins and a draw and got the winner’s medal.

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

FA Cup Winner:

Amartey did not participate in the FA Cup final, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t play his part. He started and played the entire ninety minutes in the wins against Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion. By this point, the former Djurgårdens IF man was almost exclusively playing as a central defender, usually on the right side of a back three. The Foxes conceded only one goal in those two matches, so, as usual, he did his job effectively and almost completely without fanfare.

Photo by Tim Goode/PA Images via Getty Images

Community Shield Winner:

No matter how you rate his contribution in the other two trophies, Amartey was a big part of this one. He played the entire match and helped ensure a clean sheet. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t flashy, but he did his bit. That’s really the best way to sum up Amartey’s career at Leicester: “When called upon, he did his bit.”

Photo by Michael Regan - The FA/The FA via Getty Images

The Future of Daniel Amartey:

Here’s something you may not know: Daniel Amartey is only 26 years old. He could very well be at the club longer than any of the other legends. On the other hand, his contract is up this coming summer, so the future is very much up in the air for him. In a perfect world, he’d stick around long enough for the Foxes to win the League Cup again he can lift every domestic trophy with the City crest on his shirt.

So, legend or no? That’s the question.