Leicester City EPL Title - Greatest Ever Sporting Fairytale?

[redbur95]

I know plenty of people on here won't be soccer fans, but you have to appreciate how impressive Leicester City's Premier League title is.

They were 5000-1 to win the league at the start of the season. Sportsbet has Ireland at 100-1 to win next year's Rugby League World Cup. I can't think of a rugby league example to put the total unlikeliness in context.

Even though I'm a West Ham supporter, I am ecstatic that Leicester have achieved the unachievable. Has there ever been a sporting victory as unlikely as this?

 

[Bull Shark]

Been nervously riding them home ever since stumbling over a story a couple of months ago that they were leading the race & on the verge of the impossible ect .. Surely up there with the biggest Cinderella stories in the history of sport ?

 

[Sproj]

Japan beating South Africa at the last rugby world cup. I don't like soccer at all but I absolutely love this story. Good on them and they will all become richer men when the movie is inevitably made.

 

[Sproj]

I think what is most impressive is the fact that they had to maintain this for the whole season and not just a once off, it really is hard to compare it to anything else. Maybe Wests Tigers premiership but even more unexpected.

 

[pennywisealfie]

It truly is remarkable. There's no salary cap in football. Leicester have always been a lower club that has been in and out of the premier league, celebrating when they place 14th in the league just because that means that they aren't relegated.

Mahrez and Vardy have both come from virtual obscurity to become 2 of the biggest names in world football right now. Mahrez is 25 and Vardy is 29. Vardy has spent most of his career being told by clubs (some in lower divisions than Leicester) that he wasn't wanted.

Claudio Ranieri, the decent coach that could never get it done at the big clubs like Chelsea and Juventus, has finally done it at Leicester. One of the most likeable coaches in football.

With all of this said, Leicester probably couldn't have done this in EPL's glory days of around 10 years ago, the big clubs are all very much under-achieving nowadays. But still, amazing turn of events.

 

[Big Pete]

As a casual Hot Spurs fan, I may have been the only one hoping they would slip up but even so it's difficult not to be impressed with this story.

Would love to read more about it and how it all came to be.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Wish I had a lazy pineapple on the 5000-1 though.

 

[mitch222]

Leicesters title win shows the rest of the EPL that just buying players wont win you the league. Team chemistry is needed as well and its the thing missing from a lot of the main title contenders these days. A team full of champions will never beat a champion team.

 

[Kimlo]

[TWEET]676111693261479936[/TWEET]

 

[Sproj]

...awkward!

 

[Morkel]

That poor dog.

 

[broncsgoat]

Aaaaaaand the coach is gone.

 

[Super Freak]

Apparently there was a breakdown in the relationship between Ranieri and the players.

This is an example of egos getting in the way.

 

[Broncoman]

I know plenty of people on here won't be soccer fans, but you have to appreciate how impressive Leicester City's Premier League title is.

They were 5000-1 to win the league at the start of the season. Sportsbet has Ireland at 100-1 to win next year's Rugby League World Cup. I can't think of a rugby league example to put the total unlikeliness in context.

Even though I'm a West Ham supporter, I am ecstatic that Leicester have achieved the unachievable. Has there ever been a sporting victory as unlikely as this?

I think what is most impressive is the fact that they had to maintain this for the whole season and not just a once off, it really is hard to compare it to anything else. Maybe Wests Tigers premiership but even more unexpected.

Sorry for bumping this up but not long ago I read the book "The night the music died" about Western Divisions Amco cup victory in 1974 and it reminded me of Leicesters EPL title. It was along the same lines as Leicester city, those country boys were 1000-1 or something if the bookmakers were betting on it, nobody knew each other etc but they defied the odds.

This is the closest Rugby League thing I can find like Leicester City's win. Would recommend the book to everyone, one of the best sports books you'll ever read.

 

[Sproj]

Moneyball-Esque?