For you, boss
Leicester provide a fitting send-off for beloved owner
Emotions run high as Leicester win to honour late owner
IN THEIR dream time, when Leicester City was about miracles and wonder and tragedy was the furthest thing from anybody’s mind, the club’s owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, stood in the directors’ box at the King Power Stadium and gazed down at the joyous scene unfolding in front of him as Claudio Ranieri led Andrea Bocelli to the centre circle.
The City manager and the singer stood there for a moment, surrounded by ballboys and club staff as Ranieri tried to hush the crowd.
The Premier League trophy was with the two men on the dais, ready to be presented to the team later at its coronation as champions, after they played and beat Everton that bright spring day in May 2016.
They were surrounded by bouquets of flowers, smiling faces and the kind of happiness that feels as if it will never dim. And then Bocelli began to sing Nessun Dorma. None Shall Sleep.
It seemed to encapsulate in a moment all the beauty football could bring. And anybody with a heart, anybody who loved football, felt the tears welling up inside them.
Two-and-a-half years later, two groups of men gathered around another centre circle in another stadium in another city.
Cardiff City players stood on one side of the circle. On the other side were the Leicester team, their subs and most of their backroom staff, their arms linked together, their heads bowed. Everybody was included.
There were flowers again but this time it was a wreath. And this time, there was no singing. Just a minute of silence. A picture of Vichai appeared on the big screens at either end of the Cardiff City Stadium.
‘A great son of Thailand, may you rest in peace,’ a message read beneath his image. On the hoardings around the ground, another message flashed up. ‘Together with Leicester,’ it said.
In the midst of the silence, Kasper Schmeichel, the Leicester goalkeeper, who was one of the first on the scene of the crash that killed Vichai, two of his assistants and two pilots at the King Power Stadium last Saturday night, wept openly. And anybody with a heart, anybody who loved football, felt the tears welling up inside them.
Tragedy is a part of Leicester’s history, too, now. Tragedy will always be the partner of the miracle of that Premier League title triumph of 2015-16. That was one of the greatest sports stories ever told but when the man who made it all possible died in the wreckage of his helicopter soon after the 1-1 draw with West Ham last weekend, all that joy was joined with pain.
Leicester’s home Carabao Cup tie with Southampton last Tuesday was postponed in the aftermath of the crash and so this foray into South Wales was the first time the club had played since.
It was the first time it had tested its readiness to deal with its grief as its players tried to do their jobs and play the game that Vichai loved.
When the Leicester players ran out for the warm-up, wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of Vichai on the front and the words ‘The Boss’, they were warmly applauded by the Cardiff fans.
On the back of the shirts, there was another tribute. ‘Khun Vichai. You Will Be Forever In Our Hearts,’ it read.
And when the teams emerged from the tunnel before kick-off, a giant flag featuring the Thai flag, the badges of Leicester and Cardiff, and the words ‘RIP Vichai’ was passed above the heads of Cardiff fans towards to the Leicester supporters behind the goal. Another flag travelled from the Leicester end towards it until they met.
The match programme, too, was full of sympathy and condolence. A statement from Vincent Tan, the Cardiff owner, praised Vichai as ‘a true pioneer and visionary’.
‘We want to offer our support to a club that three seasons ago proved that anything is possible in our wonderful sport,’ the statement added. No one knew whether they were coming to watch a match or just show solidarity.
Images of the Leicester players in obvious distress this week asked questions about whether they were psychologically ready to play. The message from them and manager Claude Puel, was they wanted to compete to honour their owner.
This week, Cardiff manager Neil Warnock and sensed how keen his players were to mark the tragedy that had befallen their opponents with dignity and decency.
The unavoidable way of looking at this game was that it was 90 minutes of grief interrupted. After the match, the Leicester squad travelled to Cardiff airport to catch a plane to Bangkok so they could attend Vichai’s funeral, which began yesterday.
Before it, the Leicester players, still in mourning, sought comfort in the solidarity of team-mates.
How does a team deal with something like this? Try to push all thoughts of tragedy away? Use the idea of honouring Vichai as motivation? Or forget about football, damn the result, get it over with and get out of there? In the end, Leicester used a mixture of all three.
The result was not important but they certainly fulfilled their promise to honour Vichai. The records will show that Leicester won the game 1-0 with a second-half goal from Demarai Gray. The reports will tell you that he whipped off his shirt to reveal the legend: ‘For Khun Vichai.’