Leicester City celebrated their coronation as Premier League champions and the first title in their 132-year history with victory over Everton on a day of elation at the King Power Stadium.
This was the Foxes’ official homecoming after they won the Premier League on Monday when Tottenham failed to beat Chelsea – and how they celebrated before, during and after the greatest day in the club’s history.
This 3-1 victory over Everton was simply another demonstration of the power, commitment and quality that has brought them the title – but this was more than a football match, it was a carnival with teams of joy and high emotion.
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, blind since the age of 12, was accompanied by fellow countryman Ranieri as he walked out 30 minutes before kick-off to fulfil a promise to perform at the King Power Stadium if Leicester became champions.
And in an spine-tingling moment, Ranieri looked close to tears before the stadium exploded in applause and the teams came out.
This has been no ordinary title win and the moments when Ranieri stood side-by-side with Bocelli demonstrated that this was no ordinary title celebration, reports the BBC.
The long and winding Aylestone Road that weaves past Leicestershire’s cricket ground at Grace Road and up to the King Power Stadium was awash with fans and festooned in colour more than three hours before kick-off.
Leicester’s title party started at the stadium late on Monday and the scene suggested it had continued for a week in readiness for the day when the Premier League trophy was held aloft by Morgan and his boss.
Thousands of supporters surrounded the stadium simply to take part in the carnival to mark Leicester’s achievement, a nine-month-long sustained shock to the entire world of sport’s system.
A fairground was set up alongside the arena while hundreds gathered close to a big screen flashing up the greatest moments of this seismic season – and there was plenty to show, each goal bringing rousing cheers from the masses waiting for the main event.
Even those unable to secure highly prized tickets simply wanted to be near this outpouring of joy and a chance to celebrate an unlikely story of success that took Leicester from a brush with relegation to the Premier League title in the space of a year.
This is a global story, arguably the biggest overturning of the odds and defiance of logic in sport, with the demand for media tickets far greater than supply at this welcoming club that has dealt with the weight of expectation and rising attention in exemplary fashion.
Among the banners and signals of success one banner read “A Trophy Earned Not Bought”. This has not exactly been a rags-to-riches tale but it has turned the Premier League’s natural order upside down.
If the scenes outside were breathtaking, they were surpassed by what took place inside. This was a day Leicester, the city and its football club, will never forget and they did it justice.
Leicester’s players and their popular, charismatic manager Ranieri were always going to be the central figures – but there was one special non-footballing touch that will never be forgotten by anyone who witnessed it.
