Former England Under-21 international striker Leroy Lita joined Norwich on a one month loan from Reading on 1st October 2008

A Chelsea youth team product, Leroy came to attention at Bristol City in the 2003/4 season. He scored 31 goals in 85 appearances for the Robins before Reading paid £1m on 13th July 2005 to take him to the Madjeski Stadium.

Lita's 2005-06 season ended early after a broken ankle, but Reading still won promotion to the Premier League that season.

Despite a promising start to life in the Premiership, in which he netted the winner against Middlesbrough on the opening day, Lita endured a barren run and lost his place in the Reading first team

In March 2008, he was loaned to Charlton Athletic for whom he made 8 appearances, scoring 3 goals.

Glenn Roeder told the club's official website: "I can't tell you how pleased I am to be able to secure the loan signing of Leroy Lita from Reading. He has a fantastic goalscoring record in the Premier League and the Championship and he is someone that I believe will take the chances that we have been creating but not converting."

Reading manager Steve Coppell said: "With a lot of strikers here competing for two places, this loan move is the best thing for Leroy at the moment. Reserve team football is not regular or a good enough standard, and he wants to play every week so it's a great opportunity for him to do that at a very competitive level and hopefully score some goals."

Lita scored a hat-trick for Norwich on 21st October 2008 in the 5-2 win over league leaders Wolves, and then scored the match winner in the 2-1 win over Doncaster on 25th October 2008. Inevitably, Lita's hat-trick alerted other clubs to his capabilities, with Queens Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion reported to be keen to recruit him. Roeder argued: “It's a better problem to have than him not scoring and playing rubbish - then none of us want him. What can you do? He was brought here to score goals. He was a little bit rusty in his first game, which was understandable. He did better in the second game against Bristol City when he had a couple of chances which unfortunately never went in, and then in the third game on Tuesday night, we saw the real Leroy Lita and what he is all about.

Lita extended his loan by an extra month on 3rd November 2008 and scored his fifth goal for the Canaries in the 2-2 draw with Preston on 8th November 2008. He later added another month, returning to Reading at the end of December 2008. He finished with 16 appearances for Norwich and 7 goals. Leroy played in Reading's FA Cup Third round defeat at Cardiff on 3rd January 2009. He has been linked with Everton, Newcastle, Wolves and Ipswich

Following Sheffield United's sale of James Beattie to Stoke for £3.5m on 12th January 2009, the Blades made a bid for Lita but it was rejected by the player who indicated he wanted to stay at Reading.

Lita parted company with Reading at the end of the 2008/9 season and was linked with a move to Bristol City. In June 2009, QPR, Middlesborough, Crystal Palace, QPR and Notts Forest were all linked with Lita. Despite interest from Sheffield United, Lita finally signed for Middlesbrough on 3rd August 2009 signing a three year deal

Media speculation at the end of April 2010 suggested that Boro manager Gordon Strachan would release Grounds at the end of the 2009/10 season. Instead he stayed at Boro and had a mediocre season scoring 11 goals. But one of these was the opener in Boro's 3-0 win at Cardiff on 2nd May 2011 which combined with Norwich's 1-0 win over Portsmouth on the same day, secured Norwich's promotion to the Premiership.

Lita was signed by Premiership newboys Swansea for £1.75m on 3rd August 2011."Leroy is a proven goalscorer. It would be a fantastic deal for this club," said Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers. "Our supporters would love him because he is a player that is loved by the supporters of every team he plays for.''

Leroy has been capped 9 times by the England Under-21 squad and has scored 6 goals for them.