Leicester City: From Premier League history-makers to battling relegation

In the 31 years since the formation of the English Premier League, a breakaway project that became one of sport’s most powerful commercial juggernauts, it has had seven different champions.

Two are from London, two from Manchester and another pair from elsewhere in England’s north-west, Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool, whose sole Premier League titles interrupted long runs of Manchester supremacy.

Blackburn took on Manchester United’s 1990s might, and, over the last six years, Liverpool briefly paused Manchester City’s domination.

The other club who have called themselves the top team in the most globally popular, moneyed domestic league in the world are Leicester City, outsiders in every sense. In 2016, they diverted a prize that for two decades had shuttled only between London and Manchester proudly to the midlands.

Their capture of the title had authentic fairytales all the way through. Leicester’s leading scorer was not, like Blackburn’s Alan Shearer in 1995, or City’s Erling Haaland in 2023, a much-coveted star signing. He was Jamie Vardy, a late-developer who at 25 years old had still been playing for Fleetwood Town in English football’s fifth tier.

The manager was the engaging Claudio Ranieri, a late developer himself when it came to major titles. Ranieri’s long career in the top divisions of Italian, English, French and Spanish club football had been conspicuous for its third and second place finishes. He finally got his gold medal at the age of 64, achieving with Leicester what he could not at Chelsea, Juventus, Inter Milan, Roma, Atletico Madrid or Monaco.

Across Europe, the Leicester success was hailed as an inspiring example of how to break the mould, to challenge entrenched powerbases. ‘Doing a Leicester’