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Posted 2016-05-02 09:09:16  
LEICESTER CITY WAIT FOR CHELSEA AND SPURS CLASH

LEICESTER CITY WAIT FOR CHELSEA AND SPURS CLASH

A draw at Stamford Bridge tonight would be enough for Leicester City to clinch the Barclays Premier League for 2015/6.

Betting at present reads as follows: Chelsea 1.65/1 --- Draw 2.4/1 --- Tottenham Hotspurs 1.55/1

Karishma Kapoor, 20, is a business student, a soccer fan — and a betting woman. One day last August, she was at her grandmother's house.

"We just all sat around talking, and then football came up. And we just thought, 'Why not?' Kapoor recalls. "It's only a pound, so we put 2 pounds on (about $3), at 5,000-to-one odds."

She placed a bet online — against the 5,000-to-one odds — that her hometown soccer team, Leicester City, would win England's Premier League — the richest and most-watched soccer league in the world. At the time, they were last place. Now, Kapoor stands to win some $14,600 from that $3 bet.

And her team stands to make history.

Leicester City had a chance to win the league Sunday, but they tied 1-1 away at Manchester United. That leaves their fate hanging on a Tottenham-Chelsea game Monday. If Tottenham draws or loses, the Premiership is all Leicester's.

"It hasn't sunk in. No one in this city at the moment knows how to deal with this," says Ashley Watson, 26, who works at a hospital in Leicester. "Everyone's obviously excited and happy."

Watson has three Leicester City tattoos — across his back, forearm and leg. He got the first one 10 years ago, when Leicester City wasn't even in the top division of English soccer. His forearm reads: "Leicester Till I Die."

"This season is the most remarkable season in the history of — not just football — but of my life," he says, choking up. "You never thought Leicester could win the league — not without the money of Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal."

Leicester City's starting squad cost about $24 million. The sports' biggest, richest teams — those Leicester has been up against in this competition — often spend that sum to acquire a single star player.

By contrast, Leicester City's lead goal-scorer, Jamie Vardy, was working in a factory a few years ago, playing soccer at night in the U.K. equivalent of the minor leagues. Now, a biopic film is reportedly in the works, about Vardy's life.

This week, Leicester is bedecked in blue and white — the colors of CFC, the Leicester City Football Club. Windows of shops and restaurants in the city center all display "Backing the Blues" posters. Even the Church of England is flying the Leicester City soccer flag, atop the city's Gothic cathedral.

Overshadowed by bigger Birmingham 45 miles away, Leicester is one of England's most diverse cities. On a Sunday stroll through the center, NPR spotted an African gospel choir, many Muslim women in headscarves, and an entire soccer-crazed Vietnamese family all wearing curly clown wigs in blue and white.

One of Leicester's main thoroughfares, Narborough Road, is known as Britain's most diverse main street.

"On Narborough Road, you can eat Turkish, you can eat Indian, Pakistani, Greek," says Leo Daniels, who lives on the road. "There are so many different languages spoken, and different people living here."

Daniels was taking his children out for an evening stroll, to pick up ice cream and point out local team spirit.

"We're looking at a Leicester City scarf tied around the statue of Richard the III's neck," he says. "Everything connected with Leicester, and about Leicester, is now supporting Leicester City for this title run. It's fantastic."

Leicester is where the bones of the 15th century King Richard III were found buried under a parking lot several years ago. Some Leicester fans believe the spirit of their king, 500 years ago, is guiding their soccer team now.

"If he could be here, he'd be cheering them on!" says Rachel Hare, in a local Leicester pub. "He's been here for 500 years, we just didn't know it!" says her husband, Steve Hare.

And that's pretty much how they feel about their soccer team too.

While we may be wrapped up in the unbelievable story about Leicester City, we must also remember AFC Bournemouth and their remarkable story. Just before the 2008/9 season they were just millimetres away from being barred from League Two, the fourth tier in English Football. Eddie Howe, their current manager had just taken over. An eleventh hour stay of execution allowed them to participate. The season ended in dramatic fashion as they just survived the drop into the depths of non-league football. The rest, as they say is history. They won promotion the following year. Howe left for Burnley but returned at the start of the 2012/3 season. They won promotion to the Championsip and the following year to the Premier League.

Source: [www.npr.org]

 

 

 

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