Kelechi Promise Ịheanachọ

At seventeen, Kelechi Iheanacho was handed the Golden Ball of the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, along with the Silver Boot — the tournament's outstanding player before he had kicked a ball in senior football. Manchester City signed him from Taye Academy in January 2014, and he made his senior debut in 2015, collecting an EFL Cup winner's medal in 2015–16.

He joined Leicester City in August 2017, when the club paid around £25 million for him. There he won the FA Cup in 2020–21 and the Community Shield that followed, was named Premier League Player of the Month for March 2021, and took the club's Player of the Year award for 2022–23. When Leicester dropped down a division, he was part of the side that won the Championship in 2023–24. He also holds an odd footnote in the English game: in January 2018 he became the first player to have a goal awarded to him after a VAR intervention.

His contract expired on 30 June 2024 and he joined Sevilla on a free transfer that July. By February 2025 he was on loan at Middlesbrough, where 15 appearances brought one goal. He signed for Celtic on a free in September 2025 and scored three times in eight games, then moved on again in July 2026, joining Bursaspor on a three-year deal.

Nigeria have used him throughout. As of mid-2025 he had 58 caps and 15 international goals, and CAF twice named him its Most Promising African Talent, in 2013 and again in 2016.