Rogers: Leicester City wins title for little guy

Leicester City became the English Premier League’s latest and unlikeliest champion on Monday night, completing the most romantic sporting upset of this or perhaps any other year.

English soccer is a cold and brutal business that revolves around the stony realities of finance. It is a sometimes charmless world of predictability, one that suddenly, unexpectedly and gloriously found itself entranced by a love story this season.

Leicester, thought far more likely to finish the campaign rock bottom of the league than to challenge anywhere near its peak, let alone become only the sixth different champion in 24 years, saw its triumph clinched when second-placed Tottenham surrendered a two-goal lead to tie 2-2 at Chelsea. That left Tottenham seven points back with two games to play and therefore out of reach.

Watch ty le euro

It was a journey created across months of human will, toil, thought and effort and there are no legitimate comparisons to be made. EPL teams don’t restock through a draft system if they flounder. There are no salary caps or other mechanisms for parity, nor even any playoffs to allow a hot team to go on a dream run with a handful of wins. For the most part, the rich get richer and better.

Britain’s bookies had priced Leicester preseason at 5,000-to-1, deemed less probable than Elvis being discovered managing a local convenience store or Kim Kardashian being voted in as president.

But this was a feat of consistency rather than a freak, jackpot-hitting run. Leicester has lost just three of its 36 games all season. Late in that spell, as things got tough and many expected a slip, it began to grind out narrow win after narrow win, squeezing the competition, edging closer to the unthinkable.

For long-suffering supporters of the team it is a feeling that can scarcely be imagined. This is not a dream come true because no one was crazy enough to dream it to begin with. Some fans have started to call it "The Sweetness of Once," an acknowledgement that it will likely never happen again and how that in itself makes this all the more pure and perfect.

At the helm of it all was a man universally considered to be among the nicest in the game. Head coach Claudio Ranieri wasn’t proof nice guys finish last, he seemed to be trying to reshape it that they finish second. He had done so four times, with four clubs, in three countries.

With his previous teams, Juventus and Roma in Italy, Monaco in France and Chelsea in England, he was a legitimate contender with money to spend and highly credentialed playing resources at his disposal. Not so here. So many of the Leicester squad had been derided and dismissed. You might know some of them by now.

Jamie Vardy, the former factory worker turned goal-scoring sensation. Riyad Mahrez, the Algerian midfielder considered too lightweight but now voted Footballer of the Year by his own peers. N’Golo Kante, largely unknown before the campaign but since emerged as a transformational player, a roving defensive midfielder with license to snuff out danger wherever his eyes and legs took him.Ca do bong da

Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, seemingly forever destined to live in the shadow of his father Peter, one of soccer’s all-time great keepers. Captain Wes Morgan, who spent virtually his entire career outside the top league but who, along with a tenacious backline, cancelled out of threat of all the league big forwards.

All are legends now, to be forever cherished in a city once known more as a rugby town.

Never let anyone tell you that fans are merely spectators with no capacity to influence athletic performance. Leicester’s supporters deserve a medal in their own right, a fact not lost on the playing staff.

Every time the team went behind this campaign, the squad was met with cheers and encouragement, not despondency. On most of those occasions, a fight-back ensued.

On Monday, it needed a different kind of revival. Tottenham looked to be sticking around a little longer in this title chase, leading early through Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. Chelsea, the reigning champion mired in a season of difficulty and rebuilding, summoned a final effort though, pulling a goal back through Gary Cahill, then equalizing with seven minutes left, thanks to Eden Hazard.

And as the final whistle approached at Chelsea’s home stadium, Stamford Bridge, the most improbable chant of all sprung up. "Leicester, Leicester," the Chelsea fans roared in unison. It was the moment the former title holder formally passed the baton.

Now everyone, even those at the most unheralded of teams, can dream. Now the impossible and unreachable suddenly appears less so. On this night, Leicester was cheered by its own country, the world of soccer and the wider community of sports. For this is why we love sports and what they bring, for how sometimes, when there is just enough magic in the air, the underdog of all underdogs can have his day.