Leicester City In 100 Players: Youri Tielemans
Tielemans is a versatile midfielder, capable of making exquisite passes and scoring outstanding goals. He will forever be part of Leicester folklore for his superlative long-range strike, scored in the 63rd minute of the 2021 FA Cup Final against Chelsea, which secured the 1-0 victory which enabled the Foxes to win the trophy for the first time in the Club’s history.
Born in Sint-Pieter-Leeuw near Anderlecht in 1997, Youri joined the Anderlecht Academy as a five- year-old. When he was only 16, he made his Belgian Pro League debut for Anderlecht in July 2013 and his UEFA Champions League debut three months later. He was in the Anderlecht teams which won the Belgian Pro League title in 2014 and 2017.
In 2013 and 2014, he not only won the Belgian Super Cup, he was also named the Belgian Young Professional of the Year for both years. He was named the Belgian Professional of the Year in 2017. He also won his first full international cap for Belgium as a 19-year-old in November 2016 having already represented his country 14 times at Under-21s level.
In May 2017, Youri moved to France to join the Ligue 1 champions Monaco. Over the next one and a half seasons, he made 65 appearances for Les Rouge et Blanc and was part of Belgium’s FIFA World Cup squad in 2018.
In January 2019, at a time when several other big clubs in Europe were interested in signing him, Youri chose to join Leicester City on loan. The move became permanent in July 2019.
Between January 2019 and May 2023, playing at the heart of the Foxes’ midfield, Youri made 195 appearances and scored 28 goals which included memorable strikes against Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
He played a key role in Leicester City achieving two fifth-placed finishes in the Premier League, qualifying for two UEFA Europa League campaigns and reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa Conference League.
He won both the Supporters’ Player of the Year and the Players’ Player of the Year awards in 2021. He also won 41 of his current total of 67 international caps for Belgium while at Leicester. These included playing for Belgium in UEFA EURO 2020 and in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
In the 2023 close season, he joined Aston Villa on 1 July.