They’ve done it.
Leicester City are the 2015-'16 Premier League champions. Yes, they really are. After staving off relegation to the lower leagues of English football last season, bringing in a manager who was ridiculed by many at the start of this one, they are now the champions of England. Has there been an underdog sporting triumph quite as compelling?
By now, the hard and cold facts of Leicester’s ascension are clear. At the start of the season, the football club was given 5,000-1 odds of winning the league. To put it in perspective, Leicester becoming champions was considered less likely than the Loch Ness monster being discovered and Kim Kardashian becoming president of the United States. Claudio Ranieri, their new manager, had just been sacked by the Greece national football team after a humiliating loss to the lowly Faroe Islands. Most football critics in England reckoned that Leicester City did not stand a chance of even staying in the league.
And yet, over ten months of gripping, resilient football, the Foxes have gone where few have even ventured. The last time a club outside the Premier League’s oligarchic and moneyed “Big Four” – Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City – had won the title was way back in 1995. Leicester, with a quarter of their spending power, demonstrated that teamwork can still triumph over money, in a season that will be remembered for years.
The underdog storyline to Leicester’s spectacular triumph consists of several interesting subplots:
1. A departed king’s blessings
Is there a touch of the supernatural about Leicester’s feat?
In August 2012, human skeletal remains were found buried under a car park in the East Midlands city. Exhumation revealed that the remains were that of Richard III, a British monarch from the Middle Ages who died in battle and was buried without ceremony.
Richard’s remains were reinterred with a proper memorial service at the Leicester Cathedral in March 2015. And it may well be a coincidence, but that has not stopped many from speculating about a link between the king’s reburial and Leicester’s form. The statistics show that the club’s win percentage stood at a lowly 32%, but has risen to 63% since then.
After the Foxes were confirmed champions on Monday, The Guardian ensured that Richard III featured prominently on next day’s front page.
2. The sex scandal that turned it around
Former manager Nigel Pearson was a popular figure in Leicester. Last season, he won hearts all round by leading the team to seven wins in their last nine matches, ensuring that they remained in the Premier League after looking dead and buried at one stage.
But before the current season started, a major controversy singed Pearson. In a pre-season trip to Thailand, three players, one of them Nigel Pearson’s son, were involved in a sex scandal and were caught passing racist comments.
All three players were summarily dismissed and even Pearson lost his job. Critics were furious at Pearson’s sacking and said that Leicester City's Thai owners had no idea what they were doing.
The club then appointed Italian journeyman Claudio Ranieri, and the rest is history.
3. Their Player of the Year thought they were a rugby club
An Algerian footballer, Riyad Mahrez has been one of the mainstays of Leicester’s incredible run of form. The 25-year old has scored 17 goals and contributed 11 assists, missing just one game all season. His stellar performances earned him the prestigious Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year award.
But as it turns out, Leicester were quite lucky to acquire his services. In an interview in March, the Algerian admitted that he had actually never heard of Leicester before signing for them. “I didn't know Leicester,” shrugged Mahrez. “I thought they were a rugby club.” He later went on to say that the training facilities at the club had won him over – a decision which he’ll probably regard now as among the best he has ever taken.
4. The poignant father-and-son coincidence
Former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel was a legend during his playing days for Manchester United. He was widely considered the greatest goalkeeper in the world as United won a string of Premier League titles in the 1990s.
Now, his son Kasper Schmeichel too knows what it feels like to be a champion. Junior Schmeichel was the goalkeeper throughout Leicester City’s campaign and played a key role in their title triumph, making 92 saves and keeping 15 clean sheets.
But there was another poignant coincidence which linked the father-son duo. On May 2, 1993 second-placed Aston Villa lost 1-0 to Oldham in a league game, conceding the title to then-29-year-old Peter Schmeichel’s Manchester United.
On the same day 23 years later, Kasper Schmeichel became a Premier League winner – at the same age as his father – when second-placed Tottenham Hotspur failed to beat Chelsea, thus conceding the title to Leicester City.
Peter and Kasper Schmeichel join a rare club – they are only the second father-son duo to win a Premier League title each after Ian Wright and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
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