By: Jamal Smith Sports Editor
Almost everyone can appreciate an underdog story in sports, whether it is a Cinderella team who defies all odds to upset the heavy favorite or a team that comes back from a seemingly insurmountable deficit to shock the world. On May 2, Leicester City F.C. pulled off one of the craziest upsets in sports history when they were crowned champions of the Barclays Premier League.
Before the start of the season, English sports bookies gave Leicester City 5000:1 odds of winning the championship. “This is a genuine black-swan event,” said a spokesman for Ladbrokes bookmakers in an interview with Bloomberg News. “If you simulated the Premier League 5,000 times, Leicester should win it once. We’re not going to be around for another 5,000 Premier Leagues to see if that’s the case.”
Although England’s Barclays Premier League is considered the most competitive soccer league in the world, there is a huge disparity between the teams normally at the top and the teams near the bottom. In fact, before Leicester City’s improbable victory, only four teams had won the league in the past two decades: Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Arsenal.
Then there is the fact that Leicester City has never in their club’s history finished in the top five teams of the league. In 2004, Leicester had a tough year and because of their poor record, they got regulated to England’s second-tier league, and then in 2008, Leicester was bad enough to get bumped down even further: to the third tier.
Leicester only spent one year in the England’s third-tier league, they finished the season at the top of the league and moved up. Then, after spending five years in the second-tier, in 2014 Leicester moved up to the Premier League and finished in 14th place, just six points away from moving back down again.
Even this season as Leicester began pulling off result after result, it seemed like nobody gave them a chance to win. So, when Leicester pulled off the incredible upset on Monday, the city of Leicester was in absolute jubilation. Fans hugged and kissed complete strangers in celebration.
Fans will never forget this incredible victory, and the improbable win goes to show that anything can happen in sports.
Contact the author at jsmith15@wou.edu or on Twitter @journalsportWOU
