End of the dream in Premier League. After seven years in the English first division and becoming the surprise of the football world after winning the Premier League the season after its promotion, Leicester City fell to the second category after years of sporting and institutional irregularities.
A devastated Jamie Vardy was the image left by the match between Leicester and West Ham. Despite having won it 2-1, Everton sentenced the “foxes” after beating Bournemouth 1-0. The same Vardy as around these same dates, but in the 2015-2016 season, was celebrating for having been one of the protagonists of the feat that led the team to win its first first division title in 132 years of history.
After 38 games and with 81 points, with a 10-point lead over Arsenal, Leicester captivated all football fans with a heroic feat led by the Italian Claudio Ranieri. Riyad Mahrez, N’golo Kanté and Shinji Okazaki are some of the names that accompanied Vardy to achieve the long-awaited title.
They had not set foot in the Championship since 2014, when they were promoted to Premier. Now, with a first division title (2016), an FA Cup (2021) and a Community Shield (2021), as well as experiences in Europe, Leicester ends a nine-year feat and joins Leeds and Southampton in the new experience in second division.
18 days in relegation positions, five as the last, a change of coach, financial problems, among others, were some of the problems that influenced Leicester’s drop in category. However, this will never tarnish the epic of the team for which nothing was bet, of the eleven consecutive games where Vardy scored and of that squad that did not cost even 40 million dollars.