Blue-eyed boy: Former Leicester-born City striker relives his greatest moment

There cannot be many more thrilling sights for Leicester City fans to see one of their own pull on the blue shirt.

Liam Moore, who made his England under-21 debut on Tuesday, is the latest to make the switch from Kop to pitch, following in the footsteps of famous home-grown talents to play for the club they supported as a boy, most notably Gary Lineker and Emile Heskey.

Former City striker Tommy Wright knows of the pride of going from club mascot to terrace hero.

The 28-year-old, who is currently playing for Conference side Tamworth, was born in Kirby Muxloe and was a City mascot in 1995 before joining the club's academy system.

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Wright rose through the ranks with an impressive goalscoring record and made his debut in March 2002 as City were about to be relegated.

However, Wright fulfilled his boyhood dreams the following season by becoming a regular in the first-team squad as City earned an immediate return to the Premier League, and he scored the only goal to settle the East Midlands derby with Nottingham Forest on his full debut in 2003.

"The best feeling of all was to score the winning goal against Forest at home on my full debut," said Wright, who was capped for England at under-17 and under-20 level.

"It was something I will never forget and I have the shirt framed with the picture of me putting it away.

"The other highlights of my career will always be making my debut in the Premier League, representing England at youth levels and being able to give my great grandad my shirt, who is no longer here.

"That meant the world to me, and seeing him cry and hug me the way he did made me realise how proud I had made him and my whole family feel.

"My whole family are Leicester fans so it meant the world to me.

"It is every young boy's dream to play for their home-town club and the young lads at the academy should cherish their opportunity and give it their all as the number of players that break through are very low."

Wright didn't see his debut coming as he hadn't even played for the reserves when he got the call-up from Dave Bassett to face Leeds United in March, 2002.

"It was surreal," said Wright. "It was at Filbert Street and Leeds were flying at the time.

"I have pictures of me coming on and being on the pitch with the likes of Jonathan Woodgate, Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka. For a young lad it was an amazing experience. To play and have my name chanted by 20,000 people was a dream come true."

After helping City to promotion, Wright eventually left in 2006 when he was sold to Barnsley by Craig Levein.

"I was gutted to be honest," he said. "I didn't think I got a fair chance. Being a fan, I thought I would never leave a club I had been at since I 10 was but football is more complicated than that."

Wright has had eight clubs since leaving City and he is now starting to think of life after football.

"I have been presented an opportunity to build my own health and wellness business through a company called Forever Living," he said.

"I got introduced to sports products during my career and started to feel the benefits of them. They are natural products that help performance.

"They are the best supplements I have personally experienced so I thought it was a great opportunity to do this part-time while I am still playing, and then expand when I have finished. There are also health, wellness and beauty products available.

"There are weekly business presentations in Narborough so if it interests anyone who want to build a full or part-time business they can contact me via my website." Go to:

www.prohealthandwellness.co.uk.

Liam Moore won his first England under-21 cap when he went on as an 83rd-minute substitute in Tuesday's friendly against Northern Ireland at Bloomfield Road.