The Leicester City story: why it’s enough to get every gentleman interested in football
Right now Leicester City are 8 points clear at the top of the Premier League with just 3 games left to play. That means if Tottenham don’t beat West Brom tonight, the Midlands team are a single win away from doing the unthinkable and lifting the title. It would take a serious capitulation on their part for them not to win it now.
To say this would be the biggest sporting achievement in British history would not be overstepping the mark. If you’re not caught up on the story, this is what you need to know.
Seven years ago Leicester were in the third tier of English football. This is only their second season back in the top division since being relegated in 2004, and this time last year they were bottom of the table, staring relegation stark in the face. Leicester were 5000/1 to be in the position they’re in now at the start of the season. That means David Cameron giving up residence in Number 10 to become a football manager, Hugh Hefner admitting he was a virgin and Andy Murray to name his first born Novak were all more likely to happen than these boys in blue were to storm the world’s richest football league.
(Image: Getty)
Last season, almost this exact same Leicester side were the whipping boys, out of their depth and treading water, biding their time before going back to the Championship and having to visit locales such as Milton Keynes and Rotherham. They went into the season with an unfancied manager and the expectation of coming dead last. A couple of inexpensive additions from Germany and France later and they’re on the cusp of sporting immortality and one of the greatest upsets the sport has ever seen, certainly in this country. What makes it even more impressive is that this is a team and club with absolutely no pedigree of winning – in its 132-year history, Leicester City has never won a major honour. Underdog story doesn’t quite cut it. It’s enough to pique the interest of even the game’s most staunch sceptics.
Of the campaign’s pivotal points, a 4-day period at the start of February that saw the Foxes dispatch, neigh, dismantle, Liverpool at home and title rivals Manchester City away tells you all you need to know. Leicester’s starting XI cost them just a combined £24.1 million, approximately. Liverpool’s line-up on match day set the club back £151.96m, while City’s first team rang in at an astronomical £221.05m. In a game where money not only talks, but too often wins, Leicester’s band of misfits are defying expectations, not to mention belief. The squad of lower league generals, bargain buys, castoffs and obscure European imports are proving that team spirit, camaraderie and sheer graft can trump individual talent, no matter who or how expensive they are.
(Image: Getty)
Granted, Leicester have been beneficiaries of circumstance. Chelsea have been poor excuses for defending champions, Liverpool have been inherently inconsistent, Manchester United still look incoherent and Arsenal and Manchester City have both suffered nasty slumps in form post New Year. But take nothing away from them, Leicester have led the league for more days than anyone else and have not surrendered their spot at the summit since ascending in late January. Their players have performed out of their skin; newly crowned player of the year, Riyad Mahrez, is now being linked to every big European club, having being plucked from a lower division French side for peanuts. Jamie Vardy, who was plying his trade as a semi-professional footballer just 5 years ago, has now scored for England at Wembley – many a schoolboy’s playground dream.
(Image: Reuters)
The team, and the individuals who comprise it, have held their nerve admirably amidst intense media scrutiny and a footballing world just waiting for the collapse — this hasn’t happened. Gary Lineker, footballer turned BBC presenter and avid Leicester fan, was so sure that the form wouldn’t last he promised to present next season’s Match of the Day in his underwear should his team complete the impossible task.
If anything, they’ve kicked on as the season has. There have been last-minute goals, tensely-fought affairs and some resounding victories along the way, but Leicester have set the sport alight these past months; fighting tooth and nail, putting their bodies on the line and playing some scintillating stuff with the ball at the same time. In a sport and division that has been devoid of drama for a season or two, this year has been a crisp reminder of just how engrossing 22 men kicking a ball around a pitch can be.
(Main image: Getty)
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