Leicester City’s unlikely Premier League title is likely to make them favourites, but they will have strong competition from Team GB, Wales’s footballers and England’s rugby union side
If the most important factor for the judges is which team’s achievement was the most unlikely, they should look no further than Leicester City. Money doesn’t just talk in the Premier League, it stands an inch from your ear and shouts into it with a megaphone, and no one, probably not even Claudio Ranieri’s mother, had Leicester down as title contenders. Promoted from the Championship in 2014, they had escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth and many tipped them to go down after they sacked Nigel Pearson to bring in Ranieri. Yet once Leicester gained momentum, they were unstoppable. Jamie Vardy could not stop scoring, Riyad Mahrez produced moments of pure beauty, N’Golo Kanté ruled central midfield and they played as a team, overcoming their lack of experience by maintaining their resolve until the end. Shocks on that scale are rare in modern football, which is why Leicester’s triumph was a victory for the little guy.
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