Fairytale win
Fans take to streets to celebrate historic win
Leicester City vice-chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, front left, the son of club owner Vichai, jokes with defender Wes Morgan as the team’s players celebrate with the Premier League trophy after winning the league and beating Everton 3-1 at King Power Stadium in Leicester, England.
LEICESTER: In scenes that would have seemed absurd a year ago, Leicester captain Wes Morgan collected the English Premier League trophy on Saturday after one of the most improbable turnarounds by a sports team.
“It’s the best time of my life,’’ Morgan, who joined Leicester as a second-tier club four years ago, said on the field. “You just want to enjoy every minute.’’
Fireworks erupted on the King Power Stadium pitch before yellow and blue streamers cascaded from the roof after the pre-season 5,000-1 title long shots got their hands on the biggest prize in English football.
Before the biggest party in the club’s 132-year history, the Foxes completed their first game since securing their first-ever top flight title without playing on Monday, with a swaggering 3-1 victory over Everton.
Jamie Vardy, the striker signed from non-league Fleetwood Town four years ago, returned from suspension with a double to take the club top-scorer’s tally to 24, with a penalty miss denying him a hat-trick.
But it was apt that midfielder Andy King was also on the score sheet. The lifelong Leicester player has been on the journey as the club climbed back from the third tier in 2009 to the top flight only two years ago.
Just a year ago, King and his teammates feared they were going to make an instant return to the second tier, and were relegation candidates at the start of this season.
But powered by Vardy’s goals, Riyad Mahrez’s trickery, and Kasper Schmeichel’s saves, Leicester confounded the odds to surge to the summit.
Leicester have embarrassed bigspending clubs from Manchester rivals United and City to Chelsea by winning the world’s richest soccer league without lavish spending.
Although Leicester City has been owned for six years by Thai retail group King Power, the squad is largely a collection of bargain buys and players cast off by bigger clubs.
At times, club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha seemed to hold onto the trophy longer than his players on the field as he was followed by a picture of the Thai king.
“I always believed in the power of our spirit,’’ he wrote in Saturday’s matchday magazine. “It drove us to reach the Premier League, it gave us the strength to stay in the Premier League, and now it has inspired us to win the Premier League.
“It is a spirit that has spread beyond Leicester, taking our story to the hearts of the world.’’
Hundreds of Italians travelled by bus and plane to Leicester without tickets just to be part of a story that has enthralled the world beyond football fans. They have been captivated by how compatriot Claudio Ranieri turned the team into England’s first first-time champions since promoted Nottingham Forest’s 1978 success — an era before the financial disparities were so vast.
The most famous Italian at the celebrations was tenor Andrea Bocelli, who joined Ranieri on the field before the game to sing Nessun Dorma, the aria popularised in England during the 1990 World Cup.
Vardy, meanwhile, struggled to sum up his feelings after his brace set the scene for the wild celebration on Saturday.
“I can’t put it into words,” Vardy told Sky Sports. “It’s been a long and hard process to get where I am.”
Meanwhile, Schmeichel had his picture taken by his famous father, Peter, who won five Premier League trophies while keeping goal for Manchester United.
“This is what dreams are made of,” Schmeichel Jr said. “It is what you dream of as a kid. It is hard to put into words.
Leicester’s ownership was ridiculed for hiring the 64-year-old Ranieri last July. He was out of work since being fired by Greece. And his only job in the Premier League at Chelsea ended 11 years earlier.
“It is fantastic the people have been unbelievable. Thank you to them, they push behind us all season,” Ranieri told Sky Sports.
“Of course I am very, very happy. I think it was an amazing moment for me, I am not the youngest [manager].
“To lift the trophy is something special, you are champion of the Premier League. I won some cups in Spain and Italy, but to be champion here is fantastic.”
Ranieri added: “In my career, I always thought sooner or later I will win a title, but at the beginning I never thought here would be the place but why not?”
Although Leicester had exceeded his expectations, Ranieri said he had been encouraged by what he saw early on in his time with the Midlands club.
“When I first came I thought this is a very good dressing room, all friends and I tried to build the Italian mentality, solid and strong,” he added.
“At the beginning, it was very important to stay in Premier League for a few seasons and then move up but now we are champions.
“We know very well this is strange year and we have to put it aside and be focused on next season, the foundations are strong.”