Khun Vichai was the Club’s patriarch and Chairman between 2010 and 2018, when he tragically passed away in a helicopter accident on the Filbert Way site alongside staff members Kaveporn Punpare and Nusara Suknamai, and pilots Eric Swaffer and Izabela Lechowicz.
Throughout his eight-year custodianship of Leicester City, Khun Vichai inspired magical football fables, establishing the Foxes among the game’s elite by returning the Club to the Premier League, and eventually leading the Foxes to an astonishing title success in 2016.
Away from on-field matters, our late Chairman also dedicated himself to improving the lives of people in need, gifting over £4M in personal donations to causes in Leicester. That spirit of compassion and generosity lives on through the Khun Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Foundation.
Taking design inspiration from elements of Thai culture, combined with the use of natural English materials, carefully selected for their strength and character warmth, the statue location will be a focal point not only for King Power Stadium, but for the city of Leicester.
The bronze statue stands on a base of marble granite, sparkling in Leicester blue. It is surrounded at ground level by Peakmoor sandstone, quarried on Stanton Moor close to nearby Matlock, and emphasised in brass. Its eight-stone formation signifies both our great patriarch’s lucky number and the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism, one of the principal teachings of Khun Vichai’s faith. The feature’s outer ring consists of 16 stones with 16 small, bronze up-lights that deliver a ring of illumination by night.
Within the wider diameter of granite setts, setting the statue apart from its surroundings, four evergreen trees sit within planters of Wharncliffe sandstone, which has been quarried from Wharncliffe Crags since the Iron Age. Each planter is fitted with timber seating in English oak. As months become years, Khun Vichai will always be there, proudly overlooking the home of a football club which he transformed beyond recognition.
Come nightfall, a gentle lighting arrangement ensures that Khun Vichai’s silhouette will stand over the setting of the football miracles he inspired and provide a quiet place of contemplation for the people of Leicester and visitors from around the globe. Whether allowing guests to take a moment to recall Leicester City’s greatest-ever era, or providing a location for future celebrations, the statue will be a defining location for the Club and its supporters forever.
Beneath the statue, which immortalises Khun Vichai’s warm smile in bronze, a short caption, inlaid in brass, offers a voice to the Leicester City family. It reads: ‘Always In Our Hearts’.