The Leicester City star who knows how Harry Maguire will be feeling over fan boos

Harry Maguire is the latest target of the boo boys but he is not the only player to receive such treatment from the crowd.

The former Leicester City centre-back was jeered by some spectators at Wembley during England’s 3-0 win over Ivory Coast on Tuesday night, with manager Gareth Southgate branding the treatment of Maguire as a “joke” and several team-mates posting messages of support in response.

Maguire’s is a unique situation in that his performances for a successful England side have been good, even if his displays for Manchester United have not been at the level perhaps expected.

But being booed by those who are supposed to support you is not exclusive to Maguire, as a few City players know. The most recent example of an individual being picked out at the King Power Stadium is Kelechi Iheanacho.

While now a fan favourite after his barnstorming run of form helped City finish fifth and win the FA Cup last season, he was not always looked on so kindly by supporters. In the 2018-19 campaign, towards the end of Claude Puel’s tenure, Iheanacho was booed by sections of the crowd when being brought on as a substitute.

The Nigerian was on a four-month goal drought at the time of the boos, but that ended up stretching to a whole year, with the jeers, unsurprisingly, failing to spark an improvement in his form.

Speaking about those experiences last year, he said: “As a player you face trials in your football career. It came at that time for me. It’s draining in that position as a player, but I’m always a happy boy and I’m always working hard. I was really strong mentally to keep training hard and not to lose my mind, to focus, to help the team to achieve the goal that the team wants, so that was the most important thing.