Your Belief Must Always Stay
The Spoiled Magic of Kelechi Iheanacho
This isn’t some Hollywood story, some tale for the ages. Much like the man himself, the story of Kelechi Iheanacho is one that does not call attention to itself. You won’t find many articles about him, interviews with him, and, respectfully, you won’t find many kids adorning a Leicester or Nigeria kit with an “IHEANACHO – 14” nameset. No, in a world infatuated with flashiness and virality, Kelechi Iheanacho is not a name that floats to the surface all too often.
That’s exactly why I have written this piece.
As much as headline-worthy stories of record-breakers, scandals, and everything in between often deserve their plaudits and denouncements alike, sometimes – in football just as in life – the stories that slip beneath the surface can prove to be even more valuable. Sometimes those stories, perhaps lacking in the clickbait-y qualities this age in digital media demands, happen to be the most profound of them all. Such is the story of Kelechi Iheanacho.
In my relatively short time as a football fan, no player’s journey has touched me quite like Kelechi’s. His journey is a story of acceptance, persistence, and above all – as the title suggests – belief.
As best I can tell it, here is that story.
On December 26, 2016 – Boxing Day – Kelechi Iheanacho scored one goal in Manchester City’s 3-0 Premier League win over Hull City. Replacing Nolito in the 57th minute, Kelechi tucked away the second of City’s three goals in the 78th minute, on a breakaway, assisted by David Silva. The goal, a routine tap-in, furthered an all but routine record – the best minutes-per-goal ratio in Premier League history.
In just over 1,150 Premier League minutes, 19-year-old Kelechi Iheanacho had scored 12 goals. That’s one goal every 96 minutes – by far the best ratio in Premier League history (for players with a minimum of 10 goals). The second best? His teammate, Manchester City legend Sergio Agüero – on 107 minutes per goal at the time. After Agüero, names like Henry, Kane, van Nistelrooy, and Salah.
Elite company, with Iheanacho leading them all.
Scoring for fun in one of the best teams in England, training alongside legendary striker Sergio Agüero, and being managed by the one and only Pep Guardiola, the future looked as bright as could be for the young Nigerian.
Yet, after that record-setting goal against Hull, Kelechi Iheanacho never scored a Premier League goal for Manchester City again.
Just over three years before that goal, Kelechi Iheanacho was an unknown name in the footballing world. Back then, he was a 16-year-old playing for Taye Academy in his hometown of Owerri, Nigeria – the capital city of the Imo State.
Kelechi grew up in Owerri, under impoverished circumstances. Self-described as “kind of like a ghetto,” he spent his youth kicking around whatever he and his friends could find in the shape of a football:
“You had to work very hard to make a living there, and my family did not have the extra funds to buy a real ball. Most of my friends didn’t have one either, so we would run around the streets and use whatever we could find to kick around. We would make balls out of socks, or sometimes we even used a balloon.” (2017 Man City Interview)
Despite the circumstances, football always provided a beacon of happiness for Kelechi.
From the age of eight or nine, he began training at the primary school down the road from his house. At the age of 14, he began to play for local club Taye Academy. At the age of 16, from impressing in his time at Taye Academy, he was invited to play with the Nigerian U-17 National Team.
In early 2013, he left home for the first time, travelling across Nigeria for training camp.
Several months later, he stole the show at the U-17 World Cup in the UAE, winning the Golden Ball (for best player) as Nigeria won the tournament. A U-17 World Cup-winning campaign featuring six goals and seven assists, Kelechi Iheanacho was no longer an unknown name.
Just over two months after winning the U-17 World Cup Final, he was named “Most Promising Talent of the Year” at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards.
The following day, he signed for Manchester City.
A transfer many footballers dream of, Kelechi went from playing in his hometown of Owerri to playing in rainy Manchester at one of the biggest clubs in the world, all in less than a year.
Well, sort of.
As storybook as his transfer to Manchester City may seem, Kelechi faced a difficult start.
After joining the club on their 2014 summer tour in the United States, where he scored his first goal in a 4-1 win over Sporting Kansas City, work permit issues arose – he wasn’t allowed to go to Manchester. A speed bump to say the least, Kelechi made the most of the situation.
Staying at a hotel in the U.S. while the rest of the team travelled back to England, Kelechi began training with MLS club Columbus Crew.
Gregg Berhalter, current U.S. Men’s National Team manager, was the manager of the Crew at that time. It was in fact his ties with Claudio Reyna – a relationship that has raised much drama in recent months – that formed the unlikely support system for Kelechi.
Back then, Reyna was the director of football operations at New York City FC – the MLS club co-owned by City Football Group, the same company that has headed Manchester City since 2013. Thanks to that relationship, Berhalter warmly accepted Kelechi as a temporary part of his squad. In an interview in September of 2014, Berhalter said:
“He wanted a place to train… We don’t get anything; it’s not about us… He’s here getting fit, getting sharp, training in a good atmosphere where he can learn. That’s what it’s about.”
In February of 2015, after training with the Columbus Crew for several months, Kelechi finally obtained a work permit.
Yet, with one speed bump behind him, another arose. Just 11 minutes into his debut for Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad (EDS), he picked up an injury. Despite a rollercoaster of a start to his European footballing career, Kelechi persisted.
A few months after the injury, he returned to action. On April 27, 2015, in an FA Youth Cup match with Chelsea, he scored a goal in a 2-1 win for Manchester City’s U-18 side. Just over a week later, he made his full debut for Manchester City’s U-21 side in a Premier League 2 match against Tottenham.
Soon after, Kelechi’s potential truly shone through.
On May 19, 2015, he scored a goal and provided two assists in a 4-0 win over Southampton’s U-21 side. Four days later, he scored a brace in a 3-1 win against Manchester United’s U-21 side.
In less than 500 minutes of action in the 2014/15 season, Kelechi impressed enough to once again earn a spot with Manuel Pellegrini’s squad for the 2015 summer tour.
That summer, Kelechi scored twice – once in an International Champions Cup match against Roma and again in a friendly against Stuttgart. Though he didn’t blow anyone away on the pitch, he did enough to earn his way into Manchester City’s first team ahead of the 2015/16 season.
Even though the club had loaned striker Edin Džeko to Roma earlier that summer, leaving Agüero and Wilfried Bony as the only striker options, no replacement was bought. The reason being, Pellegrini believed his replacement was already at the club.
After a rocky start to life at Manchester City, Kelechi’s persistence was rewarded with a massive opportunity.
In the fifth match of the 2015/16 Premier League season, he grabbed that opportunity by the horns.
On that day, City travelled to South London to battle Crystal Palace. City were perfect entering this match, winning each of their four Premier League matches to start the season, keeping a clean sheet in each of them. Could they continue that perfect record against Crystal Palace?
In the 25th minute, City’s winning prospects took a blow. After a challenge from Palace defender Scott Dann, Sergio Agüero, who had started up top in a 4-4-2 alongside Wilfried Bony, was forced to be subbed off with a knee injury. In his place came Kevin De Bruyne.
88 minutes gone in the match, the score was locked at 0-0, with City yet to make another change.
Enter, Kelechi Iheanacho.
In the 89th minute, Kelechi subbed on for Bony. One minute later, just as the match was about to enter stoppage time, Samir Nasri fired a shot from the right edge of the box, which was clumsily parried away by Palace goalkeeper Alex McCarthy. The ball bounced off McCarthy’s palms and rebounded to the center of the six-yard box. Anticipating the chance for a mistake like this, Kelechi sprinted from the penalty spot, through three standstill Palace defenders, to poke the ball home and continue City’s perfect start to the Premier League season.
In just four total minutes of Premier League action, Kelechi had already bagged a goal – a match-winning one, at that.
Though once again, as storybook as that moment was for Kelechi, what followed was not – a pattern that will become all too familiar as we progress through the story of his career.
Sat behind Agüero and Bony in the pecking order, Kelechi’s playing time remained sparse. Cameo upon cameo, his role for the moment was as a backup and super-sub, allowing the first and second-choice options to rest their legs.
About a month after that goal, Kelechi got his first start under Pellegrini.
In a fourth round of the League Cup against Crystal Palace (the same team he had scored the winner against earlier in the season), Kelechi scored a goal and provided an assist in a 5-1 win.
Three days later, he was awarded his first Premier League start.
Yet, once again when things were looking up, he was quickly brought back down to earth. In that start, he failed to get on the scoresheet, only putting up one shot and getting subbed out in the 53rd minute.
He didn’t start another match for over two months.
When Kelechi eventually got that start, in the third round of the FA Cup, he scored a goal. Pellegrini rewarded Kelechi’s performance with another Premier League start, in which he was subbed out in the 56th minute after providing an assist.
Kelechi’s next start was in the fourth round of the FA Cup, where he bagged a hat-trick, along with one assist. Again, an amazing cup performance, and again, rewarded with a Premier League start.
This time, Kelechi failed to get on the score sheet and was subbed at half-time.
This rollercoaster ride of starts and benchings continued to define Kelechi’s 2015/16 season. Many of the moments he was gifted a starting opportunity, he provided at an extraordinary level. Yet, when he failed to perform, Pellegrini’s patience proved to wear thin. For a club with such high expectations, coupled with more than sufficient depth in every attacking position, who could blame him?
For Kelechi, all he could do was be patient, continue to show his worth in training, and wait for the next opportunity.
Over the next two and a half months, Kelechi only started one match. Finally, in late April, as the Premier League season wound to an end, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel.
In Gameweek 35 of the Premier League season, Kelechi started against Stoke City and scored a brace in a 4-0 win. Just over a week later, in Gameweek 36, he scored a brace in a 4-2 loss to Southampton. Two weeks later, in the final match of the season, he started and scored in a 1-1 draw against Swansea City – a result that proved to be extremely valuable.
Thanks to that draw, Manchester City finished the 2015/16 Premier League season in fourth place, earning the final Champions League spot thanks to beating out bitter rivals Manchester United on goal differential.
One could look back on Kelechi’s contributions that season – whether it be his debut goal against Palace or his goal on the final day against Swansea – and say that he had made the difference between fourth and fifth.
Once again, the future looked as bright as ever for the young Nigerian.
Going into the 2016/17 season having proven his worth to the club, Kelechi had a lot to look forwards to.
Yet, as the pattern of the story has gone, another speed bump was on its way. This time, it came in the form of Pep Guardiola.
In the summer of 2016, Manchester City hired the esteemed Pep Guardiola to replace Manuel Pellegrini as manager.
Whenever a new manager joins a football club – especially a partnership of the magnitude of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City – a squad overhaul is likely imminent. Managers carry with them a philosophy that makes certain players extremely valuable and others next to useless; and Pep Guardiola is a premier example of that.
For players, this transition period is always a nervy one. Even if you were one of the previous manager’s favorite players, your career could take a complete U-turn. For Kelechi, after ending the 2015/16 season on such a high, it must have felt like starting from scratch in a way. Would Pep want him or not?
In the summer of 2016, City sold or loaned out seven first-team players and signed five new players in their place.
Among that business, City sold two of the four first-team strikers: Edin Džeko, sold to Roma, and Wilfried Bony, loaned to Stoke City. Of the five new signings, no strikers entered.
Entering Pep Guardiola’s first Manchester City season, the club had two first-team strikers: Sergio Agüero and Kelechi Iheanacho.
For City supporters like myself, this felt like a watershed moment. After such an impressive 2015/16 campaign (despite the speed bumps), it felt like Kelechi – now the sole protégé to Agüero – truly had a future at City.
Of course, those prospects weren’t going to bear fruit immediately, but should Agüero ever get injured or need a rest, Kelechi was second in the pecking order.
As early as Gameweek 4 of that season, an opportunity for Kelechi arose.
After Agüero picked up a muscular injury, Kelechi was set to start his first Premier League match of the season. Not only was it his first league start of the season, but it came in a very special fixture – the Manchester Derby.
In the 15th minute of the Derby, left-back Aleksandar Kolarov pinged forward a long ball from City’s defensive corner. The ball floated to the middle of the pitch, where Kelechi flicked it on with his head to an on-running Kevin De Bruyne. De Bruyne poked it past United defender Daley Blind before cooly slotting it past David De Gea.
1-0 to City, a Kelechi assist on the board.
In the 36th minute, City probed United’s penalty area. Kelechi took a touch near the penalty spot, only for the ball to be poked away by Eric Bailly. The ball didn’t go far however, dropping to De Bruyne on the right side of the penalty area. De Bruyne fake-shot with his right, sending Daley Blind and Jesse Lingard past him, then fired a low-driven shot with his left foot. The ball fired off the post and bounced right back to the center of the six-yard box. Awaiting its arrival, none other than Kelechi Iheanacho, who tapped the ball in past De Gea.
2-0 to City, now a goal and an assist for Kelechi.
His first Premier League start of the season, in one of the biggest footballing occasions there is, and Kelechi had proven why Pep chose him as the sole back-up to Agüero.
City went on to win the match 2-1, with Kelechi the star of the show.
Once again, as we’ve seen time and time again in his short time at Manchester City, Kelechi had seized his opportunity.
In the next Premier League match, after Agüero started midweek in the Champions League, Kelechi started; and once again, he scored a goal and provided an assist, this time in a 4-0 win against Bournemouth.
Just five matches into the 2016/17 Premier League season, Kelechi Iheanacho looked like a superstar in the making – earning article titles such as “The Rise and Rise of Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho.” Though he grabbed the attention of some during the 2013 U-17 World Cup, others during the 2015/16 season, and certainly many after his performance against United, the hype was now palpable.
Kelechi Iheanacho was no longer a name to ignore.
However, as the first passage so ominously presented, what followed was disappointing, to say the least.
After scoring two goals and providing two assists in two Premier League starts and 161 minutes of action to start the 2016/17 season, Kelechi only scored two league goals for the rest of the season – the third as a substitute in Gameweek 9 against Southampton and the fourth as a substitute in Gameweek 18 against Hull City – the Boxing Day, record-setting goal that lifted Kelechi into Premier League lore.
So, what happened? Did he get injured? Was there some fallout between him and the club? Was there some off-the-pitch scandal?
No, no, and no.
Quite simply, the downfall of Kelechi Iheanacho at Manchester City came down to the ruthlessness of Pep Guardiola.
Despite Pep retaining Kelechi whilst selling Džeko and loaning Bony, despite contributing to two goals in each of his first two Premier League starts under Pep, despite producing at a historically astonishing rate, Kelechi only played 144 minutes for the rest of the 2016/17 Premier League season.
There were two main factors for that happening:
First, after picking up the muscular injury that provided Kelechi with starting opportunities at the start of the season, Sergio Agüero went injury-free for the rest of the 2016/17 season. That season, Pep primarily ran a 4-3-3 formation, as he has throughout much of his tenure at City. In the attacking trio of the 4-3-3, typically Agüero or Iheanacho would play centrally, with two of Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sané, and Nolito playing as the wingers. This means that when Agüero was fit, there simply wasn’t a spot in the lineup for Kelechi.
Second, though City didn’t sign a striker in the summer transfer window, a 19-year-old Brazilian phenom by the name of Gabriel Jesus was signed in the January transfer window. Despite joining the club in January, Jesus played more Premier League minutes (650) than Kelechi (537) in the 2016/17 season.
While many City fans, including myself, expected Kelechi to be the second-hand man to Agüero for years to come – especially after his performances in the fall of 2016 – no one could have anticipated that role would be taken on by a different 19-year-old striker just a few months later.
In hindsight, it makes sense.
As we saw over the course of the five-and-a-half seasons Gabriel Jesus played for Manchester City, he was an exceptional and versatile forward who fit right into Pep’s plans. Yet, at the same time, my heart still aches that the rise of Jesus came at the cost of Kelechi.
In the summer of 2017, with his prospects at City looking bleak, Kelechi Iheanacho was sold to Leicester City, signing a five-year deal with the Foxes.
After leaving the shadow of Sergio Agüero and the ruthless wrath of Pep Guardiola, surely Kelechi was bound for greatness elsewhere, right?
Sadly, no.
From the shadow of one Premier League great to the next, Kelechi Iheanacho became the second option at Leicester behind Jamie Vardy.
Why would Kelechi sign for Leicester in the first place, knowing full well that he wouldn’t be the first-choice striker? I’m not sure. It’s a question that has baffled me for years.
Perhaps Leicester were the only club to make a suitable offer for Kelechi, but I find that unrealistic. Perhaps Kelechi’s agency believed within a season or two, Vardy would fade away or become riddled with injuries. Perhaps Kelechi didn’t want to be a first-choice striker in the first place. Whatever the reason is, it’s painful to think about what would have happened if Kelechi signed for a club like Crystal Palace, Southampton, or West Ham – each of whom could have desperately used a talisman like Kelechi ahead of the 2017/18 season.
In a different world, we’re looking back on a striker who has scored double-digit goals and played at least 2,000 Premier League minutes each of the past six seasons.
Instead, Kelechi has never played more than 1,500 league minutes in any of his seven (going on eight) Premier League seasons.
Kelechi’s breakout season at City, in which he only started 7 league matches, remains his second-highest goal tally to date.
I won’t bore you with a strung out description of Kelechi’s six seasons at Leicester, I think you get the picture at this point. Every single season, without fail, Kelechi is provided with an opportunity at some point or another.
When that opportunity comes, he pounces on it. Yet once he does, he falls out of favor just as quick.
To date, Kelechi has provided a goal contribution once every 134 minutes at Leicester (0.67 G + A per 90 minutes). That rate would land him at 14th for the current Premier League season, 16th for last season, and 16th for the season before that. If we exclude traditional top-6 teams, Kelechi comfortably lands in the top-5 each season, most often in the top-3.
Remember, this isn’t some single-season, one-hit wonder performance we’re talking about; this is consistent performance for over half a decade.
There’s no other way to put it: Kelechi Iheanacho’s talent has been wasted.
Yet, throughout his entire career, Kelechi Iheanacho has never publicly complained about his situation once – he always refers to his career as a blessing.
When any sensible football fan looks at Kelechi’s career and gets angered by his mismanagement and wasted potential, how does the man at the center of it all stay so grounded?
The answer lies hidden in plain sight: his celebration.
On March 14, 2021, Leicester hosted Sheffield United in an empty King Power Stadium.
In the 39th minute, Jamie Vardy cut the ball across the penalty area to an on-running Kelechi Iheanacho, who tucked away the goal to open the scoring at 1-0. After the goal, Kelechi runs towards the corner flag, hits a subdued Cristiano Ronaldo “Siu” celebration, then drops to his knees and points towards the sky with both hands – his trademark celebration.
In the 69th minute, Vardy cuts another ball across the edge of the 18-yard box and once again, Kelechi slots the ball home, this time to make it 3-0. After the goal, Kelechi runs towards the corner flag, waves his right hand to the sky, then drops to both knees, hands pointed upwards.
In the 78th minute, Kelechi picks the ball up about 30 yards from goal on the right side of the penalty box. He nonchalantly drives towards the Sheffield defense and when no one closes him down, he fires a left-footed strike from about 25 yards out.
The ball flies past Aaron Ramsdale into the bottom corner to make it 4-0 and give Kelechi his hat-trick.
No extra celebration this time – Kelechi jogs towards the sideline, glances back at his teammates, then falls to his knees and points up at the sky. The celebration only lasts so long, before Kelechi leans down on one knee, clearly overcome by emotion. His Leicester teammate Marc Albrighton runs over to console him, as Kelechi breaks down crying.
A celebration I had seen many times over the years from Kelechi, I always assumed it was a gesture to God. Knowing Kelechi as a devout Christian from following him on social media, I didn’t think twice about the gesture.
However, that moment revealed another layer of his story.
Back in 2013, when Kelechi was a 16-year-old playing for Taye Academy, his biggest fear came true.
While at training camp preparing for the U-17 World Cup, after leaving home for the first time, he received news that his mother had fallen ill and passed away. 16 years old, as far away from home as he had ever been, pushing himself to train for his country – one can only imagine the type of grief Kelechi experienced at that time.
“My worst fear was to lose her, so there is nothing that could scare me any more in this life,” Kelechi reveals in a 2021 interview.
All of a sudden, so much comes into focus.
The reserved nature Kelechi always carries himself with, the humbleness he epitomizes through his outlook on life, his trademark celebration – all of it stems from the loss of his mother.
That fateful day in 2021, when Kelechi scored his first and (so far) only Premier League hat-trick against Sheffield, just so happened to be Mother’s Day. Though I think we can all say, that’s no coincidence.
From learning to accept the loss of his mother to channeling those emotions into the persistence he has shown throughout his entire career, the moment Kelechi dropped to his knees in tears after completing his hat-trick encapsulates everything he stands for.
In moments of grief, loss, and pain, we can all turn to the wise words of Kelechi himself: “your belief must always stay.”
Humble and soft-spoken, Kelechi Iheanacho is a character that requires you to dig beneath the surface. When you do, you find the reasons behind his character that make you appreciate him that much more.
Some people may look at Kelechi Iheanacho’s quiet demeanor, his nonchalant nature, or his acceptance of a perhaps mismanaged career, and think why he doesn’t demand more from his situation. Surely he could be a superstar if he wanted to be, right?
Though as I’m sure Kelechi himself would tell those people himself, there’s more to life than success in European football.
As Kelechi nears the end of his Leicester contract, which expires in the summer of 2024, one can only hope that wherever he goes next, he is given the opportunities he so righteously deserves.
Though for Kelechi, the young Nigerian man from Owerri who grew up kicking around socks, balloons, or whatever he could find in the shape of a football, the career he has had is more than enough.
“Years ago I could not afford to watch [the Premier League] on the television. Now people in the game center back home were watching me score... Maybe the kids who could not afford the 50 naira were waiting outside, kicking a ball or a balloon around. Maybe somebody came outside after the match was over and told them ‘Kelechi scored.’
I hope I can show them that they can do anything.” (2017 Man City Interview)
To Kelechi, if you read this, your grace does not go unnoticed.
Your persistence, your perspective, your morality, is appreciated more than you could ever know.
I hope wherever life leads you, be it in football or not, you continue to show people there’s more to life than accolades and success.
You may not always get the praise you deserve, but trust me, it’s out there.
Because of you, my belief will always stay.
Thank you Kelechi.
Great piece
Incredible!