The words ‘fairy tale’ became a bigger cliche than ever before as Leicester City marched towards their English Premier League (EPL) dream over the past few months and were finally crowned champs on Monday night after a draw between Tottenham Hotspur, the other title-contender, and Chelsea.
Adjectives start to run dry following the achievement of Leicester, who started the season at 5,000-1 odds and continued to confound the pundits all the way to a triumph that was reminiscent of neighbouring Nottingham Forest’s success in 1978. As the football fraternity gloats over the amazing consistency of striker Jamie Vardy, or the stark disparity in the budget strength between the new champions and a superpower like Chelsea, the message that comes out of their win goes beyond the realm of sport.
It teaches us to believe in the power of self-belief, of the archetypal underdog both in sport as in life. It’s a kind of belief that can propel a journeyman like Vardy to an incredible scoring streak of 11 matches on the trot, something that possibly triggered the early signs of any title hope for the Foxes.
There are so many interesting sub-plots to the Leicester story: the rise of Claudio Ranieri after being pilloried as the failed Greece coach little over a year ago; a chip off the old block that goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel is, whose father Peter was a member of Denmark’s surprise Euro conquerors in 1992 and goalkeeper for Manchester United; or the rare honour of an Arab player, Riyad Mahrez, as the PFA’s Player of the Year.
What, of course, transcends all of these is the power of optimism. The next time an underdog football team takes the arena in a mismatched battle or a challenger walks into the boxing ring, just the word Leicester can act as motivation enough.
