Baroness Varma of Leicester, you were right!

I met Baroness Varma while she was visiting Dhaka to look at some DFID funded projects a few months back. After discussing what she saw and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) etc., the interview ended. While departing I said I was going to watch an EPL football game that evening.  "Which is your team," she asked. " Arsenal" I said, a team I have supported all my life.

"What?" she screamed in mock horror.

"I know you Conservatives don't like Arsenal because the Labour leader Corbyn supports it."

"Leicester is at the top. It will become the champs."

"And where was it all this time?"

"Leicester was waiting, waiting…"  We all laughed and I left. It was a small window in the English Premier League ( EPL) when Arsenal was being discussed as the champ but Leicester was nesting close by. The situation changed within a month. Arsenal kept bobbing up and down in the top four as always and became a minor contender for the crown, but Leicester kept a firm hand on the goal and is now the Champion of the EPL in what most say is the "most amazing championship season ever played."  Congrats Leicester, you made the whole world proud.  And congrats Baroness of Leicester.

Here is something from Wikipedia on the club, since many may have never heard of them.

"Leicester City Football Club also known as the Foxes, are an English professional club based in Leicester. They were promoted as champions of the Football League Championship in 2013-14 signaling a return to the top flight of English football after a decade away. They won the title for the first time in 2015-2016."

The club was founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse FC, playing on a field near Fosse Road. They took the name Leicester City in 1919.

Leicester's 2015-16 Premier League win was their first top level football championship. By some measures it was the greatest sporting upset ever. Bookies had never paid out at such long odds for any sport. Prior to this, their highest ever finish was second place in the top flight, in Division One in 1928-29.

Leicester's squad was assembled for £ 57m, the cheapest of any currently in the top half of the table. Apparently the bookies gave them 5000-1 odds to win the title.

The championship is also the story of Coach Claudio Ranieri of Italy, who was once the coach of Chelsea and was replaced by the most flamboyant coach of them all, Jose Maurinho. Yet such is the irony that Jose has been sacked from his job as the Chelsea chief this year just as Ranieri took the greatest championship title of them all.  Something magical did happen to Leicester, where its players just kept winning and never let go of their determination to succeed. No one thought this could happen, and everyone was expecting the team to crash at some point; but it never did. And the moments have now become history. No matter what happens after this, this fairy tale championship is theirs forever.

The decider came when Totenham failed to topple Chelsea. That day, Ranieri had lunch with his 96 year old mother and then watched their nearest rival draw with Chelsea with his family. So here too lay a curious coincidence.

What happened now is on every lip even as its fans celebrate. BBC reports that Ranieri thinks England's rich clubs will dominate the Premier League for the next two decades following Leicester City's title win.

"Big money makes big teams and usually big teams win. Now we can say that only 99% of the time."

While Leicester spent 57 million pounds, nearest challengers Tottenham had a squad built at the cost of £ 159m, with other teams like Arsenal at £ 231m, Liverpool at £ 260m, Chelsea at £ 280m, Manchester United with £ 395m and Manchester City with £ 415m.

Ranieri was very realistic when he said that such surprise title winners come along roughly once every 20 years, pointing to the examples of Nottingham Forest in 1978 and Blackburn Rovers in 1995.

More interesting is that the owner of the club is an Asian, a Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who is willing to spend around £ 180m. He would have been a happy with a top three finish but the title was extra gloss. "Maybe now is too early to think what we have done," said the 64-year-old Ranieri. "Maybe in one or two years it will be easier to understand, but now it is important to stay high in the world."

Meanwhile, fans of Arsenal have started a movement to oust Manager Arsene Wenger who failed once more to stay at the top. Money matters, but may be merits do too, at least once every 20 years.

Thanks Baroness Varma and Leicester. You have made all underdogs of the world happy.