Promoted as “The Greatest Show on Earth”, the Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people. So whether it is exciting football, savvy marketing, good organization or traditional advantages the EPL has found a way of selling its product to the rest of the world.
After the post liberalization of the economy, private cable networks introduced us to the world of EPL, with India being an English-speaking country, and the simplicity of the beautiful game; we of course have taken to it, as fish to water!
I may not be a fanatic fan of the league, though must admit has enjoyed my fair share of playing the sport and being a Manchester United fan. The most popular teams in India are Manchester United, Manchester city, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, somewhat in that order, and for the last 20 years they have dominated the league.
But if you, like me as a somewhat lost soccer fan,was living under the rock for a while, come 2016 and without being too dramatic, we are on the verge of witnessing one of the most incredible feat in the premier league and world sporting history!
Yes I am talking about a football club, which until last year was fighting relegation to stay in the league,to its current position to top the same league table, LEICESTER CITY. At the opening day of the season according to punters the odds were 500000/1.
Seeing the Foxes as they are called, celebrate their madness at their own success has made Premier League fun again and got fans like me urging them on. It’s just that when Leicester’s players take the field together, they show us that everything we thought we knew was wrong. That a team assembled for £21.5m can defeat one which cost ten times as much. Money may talk very loudly in the Premier League — but it clearly doesn’t say everything.
Leicester’s quality, team spirit and togetherness, coached by Claudio Ranieri and led by the leading scorer of the season Jamie vardy is at the heart of the success story.
Claudio Ranieri’s comments were pitched this way in Corriere Della Serra. “In an era when money counts for everything, I think we give hope to everybody,”
“I always tell my players to find the fire within them. A chance like this will never come round again. Seek that fire, don’t be ashamed of it. And they are not ashamed; if anything they demand to dream.”Thai Billionaire owner Vichai’s son and club vice-chairman, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, said last month that Leicester has been run like a Thai family. “It’s the Thai culture. We give our time to the staff, the players, and to the manager. We try to manage it like a family, to listen to the problems of every single member of staff,” he said. “It’s the culture that we brought to the team.”
Premier League Top Scorers
Rank
Player Name
Team
1
Jamie Vardy
Leicester City
2
Harry Kane
Tottenham Hotspur
3
Romelu Lukaku
Everton
4
Sergio Agüero
Manchester City
16 year old Jamie Vardy was released from his boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday for being too short. It was such a shock for the teenager that he decided to leave football and didn’t play the game for the next eight months. Instead he went to work in a carbon fiber factory.
Life has not been that easy for Jamie Vardy at all. By his own admission, he was a bad boy when he was younger and he had to learn it all the hard way. But, at present, Jamie Vardy is the living proof for the thousands of footballers who play in non-League that their dreams can be made real. In fact it was at the age of 25 that Vardy first kicked a ball in professional football. Vardy and Leicester came out with all guns blazing in the 2015-16 season. In fact Jamie Vardy is their go to man this season.
I am not a football pundit, but surely understand that there is still considerable matches in the season finale, to be played for Leicester city to win the tiltle,but as an entrepreneur myself there is a lot of inspiration that I draw from this incredible sporting story and many learnings in teamwork,culture and self belief for the entrepreneurial journey ahead…
So even if the foxes don’t win the title this year, to all my Manchester united friends, don’t be shocked, if you find me cheering the foxes wearing a Leicester city jersey here onwards..