One of the greatest sporting achievements ever - congratulations Leicester City FC

[Arruda 718]

Well, this is more towards you people who care little to nothing about soccer, but nevertheless appreciate sports and its greatest achievements. I mean, I don't even know the rules of baseball, but I've watched Joe Carter's World Series winning homerun hundreds of times, feeling a shiver in every one of them. I know it's rare, I know it's great, I know it's in the books. 

 

What Leicester City FC achieved today it's not supposed to happen. Big teams almost always win the big football leagues. When it's not the big teams, it's the next best thing below them. In Portuguese football history, for example, only twice in 81 years has a team other than the traditional "big three" won the league, and either of those teams could claim to be in the top-5 at the time. England has more top teams and more title contenders, being a bigger country, but Leicester certainly can't be counted anywhere near those. They were last place in the league for a major part of last season, and avoided relegation at the end. Their squad didn't have any noteworthy players, at least not internationally. I mean, the only name I recognized there at the beginning of the season was one dude called Okazaki, and that's not because he's a big player but because there's one thing in genetics called Okazaki Fragments and that made me remember the player from FIFA games. It's a mix of unknowns and unimpressive veterans. Even their manager, and Italian, had never won a major competition. Apart from two/three rising stars, it was a classic hollywoodesque team effort. 

 

Strange things can happen in cup competitions, like Greece winning Euro 2004, or FC Porto (the team I support) winning the Champions League, but over a 38 games league it's not bound to happen. Leicester was 5000-1 to win at the beginning of the season on the bookies. In comparison, Greece was about 100 to 150-1 in 2004. 

 

Probably among the top upsets ever in the history of sports. In team sports at the highest level it's probably the biggest, though my weak knowledge in areas like baseball, cricket or American Football prevents me from making a definitive claim. It's worthy of discussion though. 

Due to the nature of football leagues, and still being two games to spare they won it in a day they weren't playing, so there are no pitch celebrations. Here are the players celebrating when the other contender drew a must-win game. 

Edited May 3, 2016 by Arruda

[G37 3,445]

Sounds to me like the Red Sox coming back in 2004 (from the standpoint of odds anyway).

 

Idk shit about soccer or, football as they say, though.

[LimeGreenLegend 4,275]

I love that Leicester won, I'm so sick of Man City, Man U, Chelsea, and Arsenal monopoly on the title for over 20 years (with Blackburn winning once in '94 I believe)

This has been the best thing to happen in the PL maybe ever and has made me forget about shitty club owners, primadonna millionaire players a lot of whom are rapists and ephebophiles, and fucking FIFA (not the game, the organisation).

Football can still be good!

[kernalhogan 667]

As with most sports fans, I love an underdog story. So this is a cool thing to hear about even if I've never watched Premier League before. I'm a big NFL fan and I was told this is like the Cleveland Browns winning the Super Bowl, which would be totally unbelievable. 

[djw180 6,977]

It's great that a club so recently not even in the Premier League has won. However being a supporter of local rivals Derby County I can not bring myself to congratulate Leicester.

[LimeGreenLegend 4,275]

13 minutes ago, djw180 said:

It's great that a club so recently not even in the Premier League has won. However being a supporter of local rivals Derby County I can not bring myself to congratulate Leicester.

I'm sure Derby will win the PL in a few seasons

[Squirrel 5,180]

Doesn't seem 5 minutes since my team Leeds were playing Leicester down in the lower divisions. The money Leicester will receive for this unbelievable win will change them for a long time. What they need to do though is stay grounded, don't think of themselves as one of the big teams and don't start spending like a big team. Leeds made that mistake, gambled hard to keep playing at the champions league level and failed resulting with the club going bust and multiple relegations followed.

Still refreshing to see another name on the trophy.

[Ninja 719]

I really hoped that they would win the match against Man U so they had even a bigger celebration. Now this sunday the football club i support (Ajax) are able to become champions of the Eredivisie (Dutch league)

[JustHatched 12,123]

I don't follow the sport, but I love it when those considered not good or at least not a chance can claim the top spot in anything.

[BryannosaurusRex 1,173]

If Leicester City FC can win the premier league, then there's no reason why I can't win a DB playlist! It's gonna happen any time now!

[Fido_le_muet 5,198]

Really glad they won against all the top teams.

Great achievement.

[zmurko 7,622]

Heh, just came across this video, where Leicester is mentioned. I don't think Jeremy and Richard thought they'd actually win the Premiere league few years later.

 

[MrBump360 482]

as a lifelong Spurs Fan I would just like to comment on this Leicester Fairytale with

BAH HUMBUG!!

seriously though... well done what an achievement.

Any other Season Spurs would have been the outsider Fairytale team in this plot...

Edited May 3, 2016 by MrBump360

[Banketelli 3,655]

It's not just that they won but how they did it. Leading the league for a 100 days straight and now winning it with 2 games to spare. 

I can't think of a sporting achievement that comes anywhere close to this. Cup tournaments are one thing, but to be able to perform at the highest level for a whole season while dominating a good portion of it. That's truly impressive and shouldn't really be possible. 

2 hours ago, zmurko said:

Heh, just came across this video, where Leicester is mentioned. I don't think Jeremy and Richard thought they'd actually win the Premiere league few years later.

Now I'm hoping that Leicester end up in the same group as Juve in next years Champions League.

[DavidCore89 7,404]

5000/1 bets simply don't ever win, so to win the league based over 38 matches is insane, the way they did it was quite remarkable as well.

William Hill bookmakers confirm that it is the first 5000/1 win in their 80 years existence.

Even the outsider for the Grand National at 66/1 will seem like a sure thing compared to this.

Nothing like this will happen in any sport ever again. OK Blackburn Rovers won it in the 90's, but they bought a lot of good players that year including all-time Premier League scorer Alan Shearer and only scraped through.

[Arruda 718]

2 hours ago, DavidCore89 said:

Nothing like this will happen in any sport ever again. OK Blackburn Rovers won it in the 90's, but they bought a lot of good players that year including all-time Premier League scorer Alan Shearer and only scraped through.

Yeah, nowhere near comparable. Blackburn were runners-up in the season before, were investing seriously (for the time) in their team, and it was a more sustained growth even if their peak was short. These were nearly relegated last season and anyone hoping for a top-10 finish would be called deluded, never-mind this. Not only that, the top spots were a bit more flexible with top teams loosing a whole lot of points and with several outsiders like Wimbledon or Nottingham mixing up in there. Leicester lost 3 games, back then the top contenders could easily lose 7 or 8 matches as the league was more balanced.

 

Poor Tottenham. Over 50 years since they have been champions, and on the season they will beat their Premier League points record this happens. Sorry @MrBump360, this must seem surreal

Edited May 5, 2016 by Arruda