A football club built to provide opportunity, striving to deliver excellence and working to empower communities.
Who we are today
Leicester Nirvana Football Club (Nirvana) nurtures junior talent from the age of 2 years (Nirvana Nippers) up to under 18’s, Seniors reserves and Seniors first team. Providing a clear pathway for young players to develop in to men’s football.
The club has grown tremendously over the years and now has close to 20 teams throughout the ages of under 7’s through to men’s. The club structure also includes Nirvana Nippers ages 2 years to 4 years and Nirvana Development club ages 5 years to 9 years.
Nirvana is known for developing young talented players and strong teams with many of those teams playing at the higher end of the league structures.
Today, Nirvana embodies more than a football club and aims to be a platform that allows young people life changing opportunities via football or other arenas. With a strong community focus, Nirvana will continue to fuse football and the sporting development of individuals, with the wider support of advocacy to influence public policy and the decisions that ultimately affect our members.
How we began
Nirvana FC began its activities in Leicester in the mid-1980s growing out of the Red Star youth group in the city. The club has always had a strong BME holding but discriminates against no one and welcomes all. A real local community club for the whole city, especially for parents and their children from multi-racial inner city backgrounds. Nirvana is a true local melting pot around the integrative sport of football.
Starting on Victoria Park in south Leicester in the local Mutual League, Nirvana lacked the resources and the facilities demanded by the local football pyramid. In 1989 the club’s senior adult side moved out of Leicestershire football to join the Central Midlands League. But in the early 1990s, frustrated with a lack of access to resources in adult football in Leicester, club members began to think about developing a very different sort of club focusing on youngsters only. In 1994 Leicester Nirvana was born.
As football for children really took off in Leicester in the 1990s so Nirvana grew, a positive haven for inner city kids, and for Leicester children from wider afield. Because of its enthusiasm and care the club recruited some of the most talented young players in the city.
History of Thurnby Nirvana FC
Leicester Nirvana FC and Thurnby Rangers FC had both established their own identities at a local football level. Thurnby Rangers being a successful senior side in the early years 2001-03 in which time Leicester Nirvana no longer had a senior side but had an outstanding reputation at mini, junior and youth football levels both locally and nationally.
In the build up to the football season 2008-09 Thurnby Rangers and Leicester Nirvana initiated a conversation relating to the possibility of the two clubs merging the senior aspect of the clubs to create what is today Thurnby Nirvana football club.
Over the years, players from the youth teams of Leicester Nirvana have successfully transcended in to the senior team along with the management and committee members.
In the 2015/ 16 season, the senior team of Thurnby Nirvana reverted to the club name of Leicester Nirvana. Today we are widely known as Nirvana.