May 19 – Leicester City, the rags to riches English Premier League champions who have rewritten the rules on the pitch, have moved swiftly to expand their international footprint and are reported to be focussing on China with a plan to train Chinese youth players at their academy.
Owned by the Srivaddhanaprabha family from Thailand, the club has benefitted from a light touch from their owners who have won widespread appreciation and plaudits from football fans and pundits alike across the country. The family has worked quietly behind the scenes at the club and has carefully nurtured the international opportunity and Leicester City brand in Asia.
Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, the club’s vice chairman, said that the club had launched an international youth training project two years ago. but up to now no Chinese youngsters have been involved.
Under the new iniative, Leicester will take 15 or 16 Chinese players to England on a two-year training programme. The players have to be 16 years old and after two years they can choose to stay or return to China.
“We will send scouting team to China to bring the boys to Leicester,” he said, “They will stay here for two and a half years to study English and football.
“Some boys from Thailand are already there under that kind of project. If the project happens in China, I am sure we can find 11 players from one billion people. In 10 years, there will be more than 100 players to play in Leicester.”
This summer Leicester City will participate in the International Champions Cup in a pre-dominantly US-based competition that will see them rub shoulders with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris St Germain, Liverpool, Chelsea, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Celtic.
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