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Home / Sport / Football / English Premier League

The world reacts to Leicester City's maiden Premier League title

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3 May, 2016 02:58 AM8 mins to read

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Source: TRT World

It's arguably the most incredible fairytale in sporting history and Leicester City's EPL title win has sparked a wave of reaction across the globe.

Tottenham Hotspur's 2-2 draw against Chelsea on Tuesday morning (AEST) saw the Foxes become the sixth club to claim the English Premier League crown since the competition's inception in 1992.

An underdog story to compete with the best of them, Leicester made an incredible turnaround after a 14th place finish for the 2014-15 season - their first back in the Premier League since 2004.

With the team now sitting eight points clear of Tottenham on top of the League table with just two games left to play in the season, see how the world reacted to Leicester's championship success.

THE CHAMPIONS
Let's start with the players themselves, who were ecstatic after the final whistle was blown at Stamford Bridge.

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CHAMPIONS!!!! pic.twitter.com/pFtvo5XUNx

— Christian Fuchs (@FuchsOfficial) May 2, 2016

After the initial jubilation it was time to have some fun. Leicester skipper Wes Morgan shared a humorous exchange with rum manufacturers Captain Morgan, who gave the skipper an exclusive title for the day.

Cheers @CaptainMorganEU. This is epic #OnlyOneCaptainMorgan https://t.co/L2jvNs3640

— Wes Morgan (@Wes5L1nk) May 2, 2016

Skipper Morgan credited the club's maiden Premier League title to an incredible spirit within the squad.

"It's the best feeling of my career and I couldn't be prouder that it's as part of this team. Everyone's worked so hard for this, nobody believed we could do it, but here we are, Premier League champions and deservedly so," he said.

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"I've never known a spirit like the one between these boys, we're like brothers. People saw it last season when everyone expected us to be relegated, but we fought back to prove people wrong. This season's been a continuation of that. We've built on the momentum, but I don't think anyone believed it would come to this. Saturday can't come quickly enough. I can't wait to get my hands on the trophy."

Meanwhile, star striker Jamie Vardy then took the opportunity to fire back at a warning put on social media by Tottenham forward Harry Kane earlier in the season.

Kane had posted a picture to his Instagram account of a pack of approaching lions, as if to suggest the Spurs were creeping up to knock City off the top of the table. Vardy had the last laugh.

.... pic.twitter.com/nnwmRyOg6y

— Jamie Vardy (@vardy7) May 2, 2016

'THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN FOOTBALL'

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After such a rapid rise to the top after years of disappointment in failing to crack the top league, a number of pundits have labelled Leicester's season as a "fairytale" - one that not even Walt Disney himself could script.

Former Leicester midfielder Robbie Savage went as far as to call it the sport's "greatest achievement ever."

"In terms of domestic football, Leicester City winning the Premier League is the greatest achievement ever and I think it will never be surpassed," Savage told BBC Sport. "It is incredible. This is a turning point in Premier League history."

Ex-England striker Alan Shearer shared a similar sentiment. "For a team like Leicester to come and take the giants on with their wealth and experience - not only take them on but to beat them - I think it's the biggest thing to happen in football," he said.

Even legendary former Leicester and England striker Gary Lineker was in shock. Lineker was outwardly sceptical of coach's Claudio Raneri's ability to lead his side to a top of the table finish with this tweet early in the season.

Claudio Ranieri? Really?

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) July 13, 2015

However on Tuesday morning, his attitude reflected a much more supportive feeling.

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I can't breathe.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) May 2, 2016

Leicester City have won the Premier League. The biggest sporting shock of my lifetime, and it's only my team.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) May 2, 2016

RANIERI PROVES HIS WORTH

No one man within the Leicester City set-up faced more criticism at the beginning of the season than new manager Claudio Ranieri.

The Italian was not expected to last the season, given a less than inspiring campaign in charge of the Greek national team in 2014. But with former manager Nigel Pearson forced to depart after the infamous racist sex tape incident involving his son James, Ranieri became the unlikely pick for the top job.

Fox Sport's Ryan Rosenblatt labelled the disgraceful sex tape a blessing in disguise for the club, as Raineri became the Foxes' unlikely hero.

"If it wasn't for that, Claudio Ranieri would never have been the Leicester manager." Rosenblatt wrote.

"He wouldn't have devised the Foxes' system and tactics so perfectly for the team, often defending in long stretches, but locking opponents out of the centre, utilising Jamie Vardy's incredible ability to run past and/or through anyone in his way, and creating space for Riyad Mahrez to cut in and make magic.

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"He certainly wouldn't have had the chance to declare Leicester's goal of getting to 40 points and avoiding relegation in his introductory press conference.

"Ranieri is rightly a hero in Leicester, but he wasn't supposed to be their hero. He wasn't even supposed to be their manager."

'THE PARTY COULD GO ON ALL NIGHT'

The city of Leicester could be in for its biggest celebration in decades.

Fans couldn't contain their excitement as the final whistle blew in Chelsea's draw with Tottenham, as pubs all over the city exploded with excitement.

The atmosphere outside the team's home ground, King Power Stadium was electric.

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Wait for it....Leicester City fans react as their side win the Premier League titlehttps://t.co/896elybSKq

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 2, 2016

LESS LIKELY THAN FINDING ELVIS

At the beginning of the season, UK bookies had the odds of Leicester winning the title at 5000-1.

To put that in perspective, the same bookies had the likelihood of Elvis Presley being found alive in 2016 at 2000-1.

Despite the apparent near impossibility of a title victory, a number of punters still took a chance on the long odds. And with the miracle coming to fruition, UK book makers are now facing one of the biggest payouts in sporting history.

Things the bookies had as more likely than Leicester winning the PL:

2,000/1 - Kim Kardashian as next President
2,000/1 Elvis found alive

— Harry Jenkins (@HarryJenkins) May 2, 2016

Various reports differ on the exact total amount that will be shelled out to those that had a punt on the Foxes, however The Telegraph estimated it could be as much as £25 million (AUD $48 million).

Sky Bet claimed to be the biggest loser, with a payout of £4.6 million (AUD $8.8 million) to gamblers.

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"The unthinkable has become reality and we're facing paying out the sort of liability that you joke about at the start of the season," Sky Bet's Sandro Di Michele told The Guardian.

"We're now bracing ourselves for more punters looking to get on long-price outright odds but Leicester certainly won't be 5,000-1 next season!"

After Leicester City, bookmakers at Ladbrokes have now said they will never again offer 5000/1 odds on a soccer team to win a title

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 3, 2016

William Hill were expected to lose just under half that of Sky Bet, but still suffered their biggest daily loss in 20 years.

"Leicester's 5,000-1 victory has smashed all bookmaking records and in the process cost us a £2.2m loss - our worst individual day's result on a single sport since Frankie Dettori rode all seven winners at Ascot in September 1996 and cost us over £8m and the industry £50m," William Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe said.

FACT BOX

- Foxes became the first team to win a maiden top league title since Nottingham Forest in 1977-78.

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- Leicester's entire squad was assembled at a cost of £54.4 million (AUD $104 million), just a fraction less than the amount of money Manchester City paid for Kevin de Bruyne last year.

- The club's previous best top-flight finish was second place in the 1928-1929 season.

- Leicester have nearly doubled their points score of 41 from last season, sitting on 77 with two games still to play.

- news.com.au

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