City's only home pre-season fixture sees the Serie A side come to Filbert Way, with tickets for the match now on general sale.
Prior to the encounter, here's a look at previous clashes with Italian sides, including a convincing victory over the Foxes' pre-season opponents.
Leicester City’s record against Italian opposition
Leicester City’s match against Atalanta on 2 August will be the third meeting between the two clubs. The first two were in June 1972 when they met in the short-lived the Anglo-Italian Cup competition.
The Foxes' Italian opponents were Cagliari and Atalanta. Cagliari won the Serie A in 1970 and had come desperately close to repeating this feat in a three-way fight with Juventus and Torino a month before they played Leicester City.
Atalanta’s recent history prior to the competition had quite a lot in common with Leicester City’s. Both clubs had been relegated from their respective top divisions in 1969, had bounced back two years later, and had strengthened their side with established first division players.
After losing 1-0 at Cagliari on 1 June, 1972, Leicester were defeated 5-3 at Atalanta, conceding two goals in the final few minutes, having twice taken the lead. The Leicester City goalscorers were Keith Weller and John Sammels, who scored twice.
Three days later, Leicester City beat Cagliari 2-1 at Filbert Street and three days after that, on a waterlogged Filbert Street pitch, they comprehensively beat Atalanta 6-0. Weller scored twice adding to goals scored by Len Glover, David Nish, Jon Sammels and John Farrington.
Surprisingly, Leicester City have only ever played two other fixtures against Italian sides. On 10 August, 2001 Roberto Mancini’s Fiorentina side drew 3-3 with Leicester City at Filbert Street with Dean Sturridge scoring a hat-trick for the home side. Four years later, in July 2005, Roberto Mancini’s Inter Milan side defeated Leicester City 2-1 with Chris O’Grady scoring Leicester City’s goal with a penalty.
Other Leicester City links with Italy
The most memorable link was forged by Claudio Ranieri who famously guided Leicester City to the Premier League title in 2016. As a player he had appeared in Serie A for Roma, Catanzaro, Catania and Palermo. He also managed Serie A sides Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Parma, Juventus, Roma and Inter Milan.
The only Italian-born player to appear in Leicester City’s first team was Roberto Mancini who made five appearances for Peter Taylor’s side in January and February 2001. He arrived on loan from Lazio, having also spent 15 years at Sampdoria after starting his career at Bologna. He soon left Leicester to become Fiorentina’s manager.
Several Leicester City players did however play in Serie A, either before or after their time at Leicester. However, only two of them, Esteban Cambiasso and Lilian Nalis made much of an impact at King Power Stadium.
Lilian Nalis was signed from Serie A side Chievo by Micky Adams in July 2003. He made 66 appearances for the Foxes in his two seasons at Leicester. An elegant midfielder, he is best remembered for his stunning goal against Leeds United in a Premier league match early on in his first season.
Esteban Cambiasso arrived in August 2014 from Inter Milan, where he had won five Serie A titles in succession together with four Italian cups, four Italian Super Cups, and the Champions League. He only stayed at Leicester for one season but he played a vital role in the Great Escape of 2014/15, winning the Supporters’ the Player of the Year award.
Other Leicester City players with Serie A experience had less of an impact at the club.
Zeljko Kalac, a 6ft 7ins tall goalkeeper was signed by Mark McGhee in July 1995. He was only at Leicester for one season making just two starts, disastrously conceding five goals. He became part of Leicester City folklore on his third appearance when Martin O’Neill famously sent him on to replace Kevin Poole in the last minute of extra-time at Wembley in anticipation of a penalty shoot out which was rendered unnecessary by Steve Claridge’s goal four seconds before the final whistle. Despite this, later on his career, he went on to play in Serie A for both Perugia and AC Milan.
Bruno N’Gotty spent two seasons at Leicester. A Scudetto winner with Inter Milan in 1999, he also played for Venezia in Serie A. He was signed by Martin Allen in July 2007 and was part of the Leicester City team relegated to League One for the only time in the Club’s history. Injury prevented him for taking any part in the subsequent promotion-winning season.
Gelson Fernandes was brought to Leicester by Sven-Gören Eriksson in August 2011. He had spent the previous season playing in Serie A for Chievo where he had been on loan from Saint-Étienne. Five months later this arrangement was cut short by Nigel Pearson and he returned to Serie A on loan to Udinese for the remainder of that season.
Gökhan Inler, who like Fernandes was a Switzerland international, was signed by Claudio Ranieri in August 2015. He arrived with a solid reputation gained in Serie A following his spells at Udinese between 2007 and 2011 and at Napoli between 2011 and 2015, where he was an Italian Cup winner twice and a Super Cup winner. Despite this pedigree, he only made five Premier League appearances in the historic Premier League winning campaign and left for Besiktas a year after his arrival.
Finally, Tunisia’s Yohan Benalouane arrived from Atalanta in August 2015, although he played little part in the title winning season, during which he made only four substitute appearances. He made a total of 24 starts before moving to Nottingham Forest in January 2019.
Finally, over the years, well over 100 Leicester City players, during their time at the club, have been selected at full international level by nearly 40 different countries. Surprisingly, not one of these countries is Italy.