Ten years on, and Leicester’s 2016 Premier League title victory remains one of the most stunning achievements in recent football history.
Claudio Ranieri’s Foxes side made a mockery of convention wisdom as they defied the bookmakers’ odds of 5,000-1 to snap an 11-year run of Premier League title successes by Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs.
So what did it feel like for the Italian when his side finally crossed the finish line and pulled off the impossible?
Ranieri recalls the night Leicester sealed the title
“April was a very emotional month and it felt as though the whole city had gone mad,” Ranieri recalls to FourFourTwo.” One day at a press conference, someone showed up with a plate of sausages.
“Apparently, a local butcher had dedicated a special sausage – with fennel, chilli and garlic – to a special manager. The only special thing for me was the amount of garlic… honestly, the smell was unbelievable, I could hardly stand near it!”
But there was more to the story than special sausages.
“Amid all of that madness, week after week, the unbelievable truly seemed capable of becoming reality,” he continues. “At the start of May, we drew 1-1 against Manchester United at Old Trafford. The following day, we would be champions if Tottenham failed to win at Chelsea.
“Straight after our match, I flew to Rome to visit my mother. My return flight was scheduled for Monday night, so I would only have known our fate once I landed back in London. When our chairman found out, he immediately made his private jet available to me so I could return to Leicester in time to watch the match.
“I walked into my house just as the game was about to start – perfect timing. My staff were already there, while the players had gathered at Jamie Vardy’s house to celebrate together if it happened.
“In the first half, Tottenham went 2-0 up, but I was genuinely calm. I’d spent four years at Chelsea, I knew how intense those meetings with Tottenham were, and there was still plenty of time left to play. For me it was a quiet evening at home with my colleagues, but it was beautiful. It was the crowning moment of an unimaginable, perfect season.
“What remains with me is the pride of knowing I’ll forever be associated with that incredible Premier League title, won against all reasonable expectations. It’s something magnificent.
“Perhaps the only small regret is that I never met the punter who decided to cash out before the title was officially secured, giving up a great deal of money. I’m sure that if they’d trusted us a little longer, they would have won way more. Of course I understand – they probably needed that money, and no-one truly believed in us until the very end.
“But I would have been even happier if they’d taken the full reward from making that extraordinary bet. Life, and football, can be truly crazy sometimes.”
