You’d be forgiven if you thought Leicester was just a type of cheese. But for the football mad, the name is now synonymous with underdog success. Kurt Sansone explores the fairy tale that has enthralled even the football illiterate.

Something big happened in the English premier league this season and it had nothing to do with the Manchester teams, with Liverpool or Chelsea.

A nondescript team from the East Midlands that hails from a city with a population of 330,000 has clinched the coveted title against all odds.

Leicester City, whose odds of winning the league were quoted at 5,000/1 by bookmakers at the start of the season, finished top of the premier league with two games still to go.

The bookies believed it was more likely for Simon Cowell from Britain’s Got Talent, a reality show, to become the UK’s next prime minister.

It may all sound Chinese for the football illiterate but when somebody like Times Talk presenter Mark Micallef, with an interest in football close to zilch, describes this story as “magic” on his Facebook page, something amazing must have happened.

In an age when football greatness is often measured by the size of a club’s budget, Leicester City’s figures are anything but eye-watering.

The team cost just over £40 million (€51 million) to assemble, which is a drop in the ocean when compared to Manchester City’s budget of more than £400 million (€510 million).

Leicester’s success has fairy tale written all over it and for Switzerland-based Steve Chetcuti, one of possibly only a handful of Maltese who support the team, it is something he never dreamt of.

A supporter of the club for more than 35 years, Mr Chetcuti took a fancy to the team by accident. “When I was around eight, my elder brother complained that I always did what he did, including supporting the same teams, which was true. So I took a scientific approach to the issue and decided that whichever team won by the largest margin one particular weekend would be the team I support – and Leicester City beat Wolves 5-0.”

Never would have I imagined seeing Leicester in the top four, let alone winning the league

That started the love story with Leicester for Mr Chetcuti, a corporate communications manager. It was reinforced years later when he studied for his Master’s degree at Leicester University.

“It is every football fan’s dream to see their team lift the cup and never would have I imagined seeing Leicester in the top four, let alone winning the league,” he says over the phone.

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri leaves the San Carlo restaurant on Tuesday after celebrating winning the English Premier League with his players. Photo: ReutersLeicester manager Claudio Ranieri leaves the San Carlo restaurant on Tuesday after celebrating winning the English Premier League with his players. Photo: Reuters

Leicester fans were used to sporting banners with the words ‘We will stay up’, as the team struggled to maintain top league status last season. It was ironic to see such a banner being held up by a fanlast week when the club was on the cusp of becoming champions.

“Fans are in dreamland and after watching the team win game after game, well, Barcelona here we come,” Mr Chetcuti jokes as Leicester head for the Champions League next season.

Mr Chetcuti is not the only Fox-mad Maltese. Six other locals were so delighted by the title win that they immediately flew to the UK city to join in the celebrations. 

"Three of us had been to Leicester in 2014-15 for an Erasmus [student] exchange," Robert Dingli told Times of Malta. That was the season the Foxes returned to the Premier League. "We flew here to celebrate." 

It is the game-after-game philosophy adopted by Leicester coach Claudio Ranieri that enabled the team to chug along steadily as they shoved aside English football’s greats.

Ranieri, who has coached much bigger teams in Europe’s top football leagues, had never enjoyed silverware success so his engagement in the summer months had question marks written all over it.

Supporters like Mr Chetcuti were doubtful and according to the bookies there was a bigger chance of Ranieri being the first premier league coach to get the sack than Leicester winning. But Ranieri & Co. had other plans.

Robert Dingli and his friends just can't get enough of the fearless Foxes. Photo: Robert DingliRobert Dingli and his friends just can't get enough of the fearless Foxes. Photo: Robert Dingli

For Valletta FC coach Paul Zammit, Leicester’s success was underpinned by talent and the technical staff’s ability to bring the different characters together.

“Ranieri managed to structure the club and inject psychological strength, which is an important ingredient alongside talent,”he says.

He says it is not an easy task to manage different characters and bring the group together. The success of a coach with a particular team may not necessarily be repeated with a different team but at Leicester the right circumstances coalesced and victory came along, he adds.

Mark Davies, head of new business at Leicester City, told the Times of Malta last week he felt blessed to have “a charismatic manager” like Ranieri guiding the team. The former Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Chelsea coach embodies the philosophy of the club, Mr Davies said, describing the step-by-step approach that saw expectations rise gradually from obtaining the 40 points needed for top flight survival to a place in the Europa Cup to eventual success.

“We echo the behaviour of Claudio Ranieri. We’re having a great season but like Claudio, we’ve been ticking off every achievement as it comes,” Mr Davies told this newspaper.

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