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22nd Mar 2016

The forgotten story of how Emile Heskey helped save Leicester from administration

Conan Doherty

Would you give up some money to help out a struggling former employer?

Maybe you’d throw in a few quid, but for former Leicester City striker Emile Heskey, the stakes were a little higher.

The former England international apparently donated £100,000 to his old club long before the Foxes’ unprecedented run to the summit of English football began.

The former fox in the box couldn’t sit by idly and watch as his boyhood team went into administration in 2002/03. So he put his money where his mouth is and helped dig them out with a sizable six-figure donation.

Clint Hill of Tranmere Rovers challenges Emile Heskey of Leicester City

“The club was going down a road nobody wanted to see. It was something I had to do. I wasn’t looking for anything from it,” he revealed to the Daily Star.

“If it wasn’t for this club, would I be what I am or have done what I have achieved? Everything that happened for me is down to me starting here as a little kid.

“I just felt it was something I had to do and, in all fairness, I thought a few more people would do it as well. But maybe they just didn’t have the same deep feeling as me.

“I just gave it unconditionally because of my love for the club. They were in a bad way. It was desperate. It was sad to see the club I played for and went to cup finals with in such a terrible state.

“I was a ball boy at Filbert Street and I went to playing at the old Wembley with my parents watching. Everything about what happened for me was all down to starting here.”

What a fantastic guy.