May 4 – The Thai owners of shock Premier League champions Leicester City insist they will resist attempts by more glamorous clubs to lure away their top players following their remarkable triumph that captured the imagination of fans worldwide.
Leicester’s journey from 5,000-1 outsiders to English champions has been hailed as the greatest team sport story in living memory but also prompted speculation that bigger clubs will poach their best players during the summer.
The family behind Leicester’s astonishing achievement have never courted publicity but have come out straight away with a pledge that the most unlikely of champions will not be breaking up.
“We are not selling anyone,” Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha (pictured left), the club’s vice chairman and son of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha (pictured right), told Thai television.
“We are not a team who produces players to be developed later by other teams. So selling players is not on our agenda. So I can confirm that we will keep all major players with the team, such as Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante and Kasper Schmeichel.”
Next season, Leicester – who were playing in the second tier of English football when Vichai took over in 2010 – will compete in the Champions League alongside the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. During their astonishing domestic campaign, they were regularly blessed by Thai monks, one of whom, Phra Prommangkalachan, told Reuters TV that the power of Buddhism had “created teamwork and unity in the team.”
“With their clear minds, it has brought concentration, ability, and determination for them to go to the international arena. At the moment, they will be able to thrive anyway because of their strong minds and they will continue to win on the international stage,” he added.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha is reportedly a regular devotee of Phra and took him to Britain to bless the stadium and the team. Meanwhile Thai fans, more used to supporting the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool, have been captivated by Leicester’s Cinderella story.
Leicester’s Thai Facebook page had nearly 600,000 likes after they clinched the title, compared with 5,000-6,000 at the start of the season. Replica shirts, meanwhile, have sold out.
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