Perhaps the most high-profile name to reach the pinnacle of the game with Leicester City having come through the Non-League system, is Jamie Vardy - the Club's all-time leading Premier League goalscorer.
Starting his journey in Northern Premier League Division One South East with Stocksbridge Park Steels after being released by Sheffield Wednesday as a 16-year-old, he soon moved into the senior setup at the south Yorkshire club, enjoying three goal-laden seasons with his local team.
Halifax Town was the Sheffield-born striker’s next destination, scoring 26 goals and helping to secure the Northern Premier League Premier Division title at the end of the 2010/11 campaign, before Fleetwood Town, then in the National League, came calling.
Future England international Vardy made a big impression for the Cod Army in 2011/12, netting 31 league goals in 36 games to finish as top scorer and seal their first-ever promotion to the English Football League. Leicester subsequently signed the forward for a reported Non-League record fee of £1M that summer, and the rest is history.
Wales international goalkeeper Danny Ward, meanwhile, came through the ranks at National League outfit Wrexham, signing for the Dragons as a 14-year-old, in 2007. Four years later, Ward got his first taste of senior football at then fellow fifth-tier side Tamworth.
He debuted against Hayes and Yeading United in March 2011 before returning to Wrexham. Liverpool soon signed the ‘keeper, making his Premier League debut for the Reds before becoming an FA Cup and Community Shield winner with Leicester City.
A more recent name in the Non-League pyramid, Development Squad forward Jake Wakeling, currently on loan at Barrow - a Non-League club until 2020 - was previously on the books at West Bromwich Albion, leaving in 2020. He then turned out for Alvechurch in tier seven of the English football pyramid, scoring five goals in the Southern League Premier Division Central before signing for City in November 2020.
Ayoze Pérez’s family have strong links to the Non-League game. Ayoze’s brother, Samuel, who is also a forward, currently turns out for Alnwick Town of the Northern Football Alliance Premier Division, having previously played for National League North side Blyth Spartans and Scottish outfit Berwick Rangers in the Lowland League.
Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers enjoyed a career in the Non-League game himself before turning his hand to management. After leaving Reading at the age of 20, Rodgers spent 1993/94 at Newport FC from the Isle of Wight, playing in the Southern Division of the Southern League.
The following season, the former defender spent time on loan at Witney Town of the Southern League South Division and in 1995, the Northern Irishman played for Newbury Town of the Isthmian League.
There is another current Foxes 'keeper who, earlier in his career, plied his trade at a team now within the Non-League system. Darlington, then of the fourth tier, took Kasper Schmeichel on loan from Manchester City in January 2006.
He made his professional debut at the north-east club against Peterborough United later that month. The Danish shot-stopper then kept his first clean sheet in a game against Grimsby Town three days later and made a total of four league appearances for Town.
The 35-year-old signed for current National League team Notts County, then of League Two, in 2009, and the Magpies stormed to the fourth-tier title that season, confirming their status as champions with a win against former club, Darlington.
A decade on from his Darlington loan, Schmeichel would lift the Premier League trophy at King Power Stadium at the end of Leicester’s historic 2015/16 season, which was followed by UEFA Champions League football for the Foxes captain.