Leicester idles its way to historic victory

Foxes net title after Chelsea, Tottenham play to 2-2 draw

Associated Press

LONDON

Leicester City completed one of the greatest-ever sporting achievements Monday when the 5,000-1 underdogs won the English Premier League for the first time.

Foxes players were crowded around a television inside top-scorer Jamie Vardy’s house as they were handed the title by closest challenger Tottenham being held to a 2-2 draw by deposed champion Chelsea, who scored a tying goal in the closing minutes to hand the title to Leicester.

With an insurmountable seven-point lead over Tottenham with two games remaining, Leicester is champion of England for the first time in its 132-year history.

“Nobody believed we could do it, but here we are — Premier League 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.”

With two games still to go, Leicester has won 22 games, drawn 11 and lost only three. Leicester will automatically qualify to the Champions League next season — a tournament featuring top teams from throughout Europe typically including juggernauts like Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester United and others.

Just two years ago, Leicester was playing in the second tier of the English system and then came close to instantly dropping out of the Premier League last year.

The European style of soccer typically has the bottom three teams relegated to a lower division while top teams in a lower league get moved up to a stronger league the following season — similar to the worst MLB teams being sent down to AAA the following year and vice versa.

Leicester started this season as among the favorites to be relegated again. But on Monday night fans who never dreamed their modest club in city with a population of 330,000 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 said. “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, which will collect the trophy Saturday when it hosts Everton at home, had not even finished higher than second since 1929.

At the end of the 2007-08 season, Leicester was relegated to the third tier of the English system, earning promotion in 2008-09 and spent five seasons in the second tier until earning promotion back to the Premier League in the 2013-14 season. In total, Leicester spent a decade between the second and third tiers before finally getting back to the top level.

Last season the Foxes seemed destined to be relegated again suffering a string of 13 games without a win through the season and only managed to avoid relegation by catching fire at the end of the season, winning seven of the final nine games. Still, at the beginning of this season Leicester was expected to be relegated again.

English soccer has not had a first-time champion of the top league 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.

Unlike that title-winning quartet or 1995 champion Blackburn, Leicester has achieved its success without lavish spending on its squad. Leicester’s 11 starters cost around $30 million. David Silva, the eighth-most expensive player for Manchester City, cost about $35 million, and the team’s cost is around $428 million.