King Richard must have been a Leicester City Football fan. At least that is what people are saying this year.
The Leicester City Foxes had never won a top division title in their 132-year history. That is a long time.
After the Reinterment, the Leicester City Football Club's fortunes began to change in an interesting and promising way. A not very wealthy team made up of good players who were a little bit out of control at times and unfocused, began to win games to keep afloat in the Premier League. They managed to just escape relegation at the end of the season by a whisker.
And then their manager Nigel Pearson, a difficult man at best, made a huge boo-boo. He insulted a journalist by calling him an ostrich.
Okay, that sounds pretty silly, and why did that make such a difference to the Foxes?
It didn't help that Nigel Pearson's son, a member of the team, was shortly afterwards involved in a sex tape scandal in Thailand at the time with a couple of other players. This was the last straw for the Club who let Mr. Pearson go.
Now how were those Foxes going to get out of this mess?
The arrival of Italian Claudio Ranieri was heralded with skepticism for the future of the team. With the beginning of the season, the Foxes were predicted at 5000/1 to actually win the Premier League. That was greater odds than if Elvis Presley (the King) was still alive, or even King Richard himself.
But the Foxes started winning. And winning, And winning.
By Christmas, the Leicester City Foxes were top of the Premier League table. Who would have thought that could happen?I did. I started naively rooting for the Foxes the beginning of the season. I liked Claudio Ranieri, a soft-spoken Italian gentleman who inspired his team with promises of pizza and invoked a new team spirit of total cooperation. It really spoke to my heart and current situation, so why not? I believed they could win with this winning attitude.
Sometime in February 2016, when the Foxes were still on top of the table, people began to think, maybe this is the doing of King Richard. We just gave him a burial suitable for an English monarch, after he was lost for 500 years, and now look at the underdog team of the city. Something has gotten into them. Maybe King Richard is the Foxes most valuable player. The stadium in this kingly city is named King Power, after all!
To put a long and rather fabulous story short, the Foxes did it! They won the Premier League title with 10 points to spare. "Incredible!" shouted the world. Something nobody thought would every happen.
Yesterday was the day of the Champions parade. 240,000 people showed up in the streets to celebrate the Leicester City Foxes in their 5000/1 achievement. I like to think of Richard being there, too, celebrating with them.
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| The Blue Army in Victoria Park, Leicester |
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| King Richard Statue in Cathedral Square |
