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 Leicester clinched the English league title for the first time in
their 132-year history on Monday night when second-placed Tottenham
Hotspur drew with Chelsea, leaving them too far behind the leaders
with only two games left to play.
Praise poured in around the world for Leicester, who were on the
brink of relegation last season.
France Football led with the news that "Leicester has achieved the
impossible," while Germany's Bild said: "Europe's biggest football
sensation - Leicester's title miracle is real."
Major U.S. newspaper the New York Times' article, "Leicester City
Completes Rise by Clinching Premier League Title," drew attention to
their meteoric rise after flirting with a drop to the Championship
last year.
The Sydney Morning Herald said in an article "Leicester City's
Premier League win much more than a miracle" that the gruelling,
"miracle-proof" league schedule makes the team's victory all the
more impressive.
 Norway paper VG answered the question of "What Does the Fox Say?", a
Norwegian number one single by Ylvis, by saying "Cha-Cha-Cha
Champions".
The British press reports were no less glowing. From "Zeroes into
heroes" (Metro) to "history makers" (Daily Mirror), Claudio
Ranieri's men were lauded all round, with the Sun and Daily Star
highlighting the end to Leicester's anxious wait with a simple "Blue
done it".
The Foxes' dream run was given a Shakespearean touch by the
Guardian, who declared the side "Kings of England" with a picture of
Richard III, whose bones are buried in Leicester.
The "fairytale finish for champions Leicester" (The Times) as the
club "pulled off greatest fairytale in football history" (Daily
Express) was greeted in the Daily Telegraph with "Leicester's
miracle men crowned Premier League champions".
A Times writer, along with others, said that "you would have got
better odds on finding Elvis alive" with bookmakers giving Leicester
only a 0.02 percent chance at the beginning of the season.
For the Mirror they were "The Incredibles" and "rebels without a
clause" (Mirror) because, as several writers recorded, this was a
team put together for so much less money than almost all of their
rivals.
The Telegraph also highlighted this fact. "In a story worthy of The
Boy's Own Paper, the team from a relatively small and unglamorous
town has come back from near disaster a year ago to overcome
flashier, richer rivals."
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It "proved miracles do occasionally happen", said the Mirror in
arguing that Leicester had recaptured some of football’s beauty with
its unlikely success.
KING CLAUDIO
The accolades were also heaped on manager Claudio Ranieri, who has
never won the top flight title before in his 30-year managerial
career.
He was "King Claudio" in his home country Italy's La Gazetta dello
Sport, which portrayed him as a Romanesque statue, while Tuttosport
hailed him the "King of England". Corriere dello Sport joined in by
hailing the monumental achievement.
Catalan-based sport daily Marca featured Ranieri alongside the
headline 'Ole Leicester!' The 64-year-old manager spent four years
working in Spain with spells at Atletico Madrid and Valencia.
Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo featured a shot of Leicester
City's jubilant fans with the headline 'Leicester Miracle'. While AS
claimed Leicester's triumph as the "the miracle of the century".
The headline on the main piece in Le Parisien read: "Leicester,
incredible kings of England.", while L'Equipe's front page had a
headline read "So Good!" with a photo of Leicester players
celebrating.
Not all the coverage was quite so celebratory. Japanese sports paper
Sponichi hailed Leicester's victory - but added that its star
players were now the targets of bigger, higher-paying clubs, meaning
the team could struggle next season.
(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh
Lawson)
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