Leicester City Sign Veteran Goalkeeper Dai Cornell
Leicester City have moved to plug their goalkeeping gap with the signing of veteran stopper Dai Cornell on a one-year deal.
The 35-year-old Welshman arrives as a free agent after turning down a new contract at Preston North End, where he spent last season in the Championship. He left Deepdale in the summer and now drops into League One with the Foxes, who are pushing for an immediate return to the second tier.
The need was urgent. Jakub Stolarczyk’s season-ending knee injury in early September left Leicester light in a key position, and the club have acted by bringing in a goalkeeper whose career has been built on reliability and dressing-room presence as much as shot-stopping.
Manager's Comments
Manager Russell Martin made it clear Cornell’s impact will not be judged solely on what he does between the posts.
“He understands the role he is going to fulfil here, but he also backs himself to show what a good goalkeeper he is,” Martin told BBC Radio Leicester. “But first and foremost, he is a brilliant character and really adds to the character, voice and experience in this squad.”
Cornell, who began his career at Swansea City, has travelled widely across the leagues. Leicester become the 11th club on his CV, with previous spells including St Mirren in Scotland and English sides Portsmouth, Oldham, Northampton and Peterborough, as well as Ipswich Town and Preston.
Now he steps into a goalkeeping group headed this season by former Southampton keeper Alex McCarthy, a once-capped England international who has been Martin’s first choice so far. Franco Ravizzoli, signed from Blackpool in the summer, has been on the bench since Stolarczyk was ruled out.
Cornell has made it clear he is ready to slot into that hierarchy and serve however he is needed, saying he is keen to “help in any way” he can at the Foxes.
Leicester wanted experience, voice and calm in a promotion chase that will only grow more frantic in the months ahead. In Cornell, they have backed a man who has spent a career living on that fine line between starter and understudy. Now it’s over to him to show there is still plenty left in the gloves.
