Fighting foxes are kings of the Premier League

TOURISM to the English Midlands city of Leicester has received its biggest boost since history buffs found a reason to visit, following the reburial of the remains of King Richard III in a city cathedral in September 2012.

Thanks to Leicester City’s amazing season in the English Premier League — the Foxes won the world’s most-followed league on Monday evening, when Spurs failed to beat Chelsea — tourists and football lovers from across the world are now suddenly curious about this little-known city on the River Soar.

With a population comparable with that of the thriving metropolis of Springs on the East Rand (about 330,000, compared to 375,000 in Springs, which has plenty of football teams, but none that has overachieved), Leicester is not often the focus of global attention.

However, inspired in part, some believe, by the spirit of Richard III, Leicester City have soared above far wealthier teams from much bigger cities whose owners could buy their entire squad with the kingly annual salary of just one of their overpaid stars.

Sir Claudio of Leicester

THE Leicester city council is understandably pleased with developments, especially since it has been running a Backing the Blues campaign, much to the annoyance of fans of those other Blues, Chelsea, where Stamford Bridge is falling down, and the team’s Russian oligarch owner is said to be wondering if their slump is the curse of the royal Tsars the communists killed after the 1917 Russian revolution.

Incidentally, Leicester must be one of precious few cities in the world whose mayor is a knight.

The Insider has been unable to establish when or why Sir Peter Soulsby was knighted, but there will be a good few Leicester City fans lobbying for the same honour to be extended to coach Claudio Ranieri after what he has pulled off. If Richard III were still around, he would surely not only approve of this, but volunteer to do the honours personally.

Incidentally, doing a Google search for anything on Leicester runs rather slowly; it may be that so many people across the world want to share in this amazing story that Google’s servers can’t cope.

The most famous toast in the world will soon be one in honour of Richard III, stone dead since August 1485, but still working with and for Leicester City. To Richard III and Leicester City — Nazdarovya! Hope springs eternal.