Leicester City Became the Champion of the English Premier League. ST introduces how Leicester City advanced to top, introducing its history, reasons behind the advance and expectations. ............................Ed
Who would have ever thought that Leicester City would win the English Premier League title? Leicester City is an English football club that was founded in 1884. As its name suggests, it is based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England. Was Leicester City regarded as a strong team in the Premier League like Manchester United? Definitely not. Leicester city played in the English Championship league until the 2013~2014 season and was later promoted to the English Premier league in the 2014~2015 season. During the previous season, Leicester city finished the league 14th place out of 20 teams. The 5000-to-1 odds that Leicester City would win the Premier league this year represented how shocking it was that the team actually won the Premier league title. To put it simply, people who waged 1 dollar on Leicester City before the season, will receive 5000 dollars after the season. A team without money, star players, or history of winning the Premier league title is, by far, the biggest Cinderella story in the history of England soccer.
Then what was the key to Leicester City’s success? Claudio Ranieri has been Leicester City’s manager since July of 2015. His leadership and soccer tactics have worked perfectly on motivating the players and leading the team to a victory. He used a tactic called the underdog, in which players initially focus on organized defense and quickly switch to a fast counter attack and aim for a goal. This tactic was a perfect suit for Leicester City’s players. Claudio Ranieri’s leadership have also played a big role in getting the best out of the players. He allowed the players to train in a free condition and he respected them. He also kept on praising the players that they deserve a victory, and he motivated them to train and play harder. The players said that Ranieri shouted “dilly-ding, dilly-dong” a lot while training them. It is the sound of a bell that was used to remind them to find the problem amongst themselves. The players would then keep on having conversations with each other and develop their skills by solving their problems.
Winning the league with the best players is not a surprise; however, there is something strange about Leicester City’s players. Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N`Golo Kante are the players of Leicester City with an outstanding performance throughout the season. Riyad Maharez has been chosen as the player of the year by the PFA. The one thing they all have in common is a sad history. Jamie Vardy was a player who worked at the factory in the morning and ran in a team that people would have never even heard of. Riyad Mahrez grew up in a ghetto, and had even been called a worthless player by a coach. N`Golo Kante had been rejected by numerous teams due to his small height. However, they became outstanding players after many years of hard work.
