Associated Press
London, May 3: Leicester City completed one of the greatest-ever sporting achievements Monday when the 5,000-1 underdogs won the English Premier League (EPL) title for the first time.
Leicester players were crowded around a television inside top-scorer Jamie Vardy’s house as they were handed the title by closest challenger Tottenham Hotspur being held to a 2-2 draw by deposed champion Chelsea.
With an insurmountable seven-point lead over the Spurs with two games remaining, Leicester is champion of England for the first time in their 132-year history.
“Championes! Championes! Ole! Ole! Ole!” the jubilant Leicester players sang as they jumped up and down with their arms on each other’s shoulders inside Vardy’s house.
“Nobody believed we could do it, but here we are – EPL champions and deservedly so,” Leicester captain Wes Morgan said. “I’ve never known a spirit like the one between these boys, we’re like brothers.”
Just two years ago, Vardy and many of his teammates were playing in the second tier and then came close to instantly dropping out of the Premier League. They started this season as among the favourites to be relegated again. But Monday night, fans who never dreamed their modest club in a city with a population of 3,30,000 would conquer wealthier rivals, descended on Leicester’s King Power Stadium to party into the night.
“People saw it last season when everyone expected us to be relegated, but we fought back to prove people wrong,” Morgan told reporters. “This season’s been a continuation of that. We’ve built on the momentum, but I don’t think anyone believed it would come
to this.”
Leicester, who will collect the trophy Saturday when they host Everton at home, had not even finished higher than second
since 1929.
English soccer has not had a first-time champion of the top flight since Nottingham Forest in 1978. And for the last 20 years the Premier League trophy has never left London or Manchester, with Arsenal, Chelsea, United and City sharing the trophy between them.
Chelsea’s draw also ensured Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri became a league title winner for the first time in his career, 12 years after the 64-year-old Italian was fired by the Blues.
“It’s the greatest achievement in the history of English football and it was led by an Italian,” Matteo Renzi, the Italian Prime Minister, tweeted.
Ranieri called Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink to thank him for Chelsea’s part in delivering the title to Leicester, which is owned by Thai retail giant King Power.
“(Ranieri said) five times ‘Thanks’, because of the emotion,” Hiddink said. “I didn’t see any tears because it was not a Facetime conversation, but his voice was trembling a bit.”