May 05, 2021 at 06:30
HONOR
Francesc Ripoll
–
–
–
–
–
The whistle blew at Stamford Bridge. The luminous reflected the tie to two between Chelsea and Tottenham. Faces of circumstances on the green. It was over. Far from the capital, in a house near Leicester, a burst of joy. They had succeeded. The ‘foxes’, against all odds, had been proclaimed champions of the Premier League. That May 2, 2016 would go down in history. Five years later, Leo Ulloa (General Roca, Argentina, 1986) continues to remember him with a huge smile. “When I decided to play soccer, I never thought of experiencing something similar to that season. I am ‘again grateful’ to life for being able to be in that situation. “, admits to SPORT.
The story of that team is from a movie. Of David versus Goliath. Of which any child -or not so child- dreams of doing in the Football Manager. From that fan of a neighborhood team who hopes that, one day, it will happen to his people. And it is that they went from an agonizing salvation in 2014/2015, when everyone considered Leicester for relegation, to defeating the ‘Big Six’ and making a place in the English Olympus.
The road, long as well as beautiful. They started the Premier on the right foot, losing only one game in the first round. “They will already fall. They won’t keep up, ”we thought. Illusions. Between January and February they faced Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal, with an astonishing balance of three wins and a single loss. “The team was at a spectacular level, they played, imposed, won and won well. There we began to believe that we could become champions “.
The architect of all this, Claudio Ranieri. After the controversial dismissal of Nigel Pearson, the Italian took the helm of the ship ‘fox’, finding himself “A very solid, healthy and united wardrobe. There were no stars, no one was the figure. That was the key “. Taking advantage of that, he drew up a seamless plan. Literally. A 4-4-2 with an impregnable defense, an off-road midfield and an attack prepared to bite the counter. Simple, but effective. “We knew that if we played something else the results weren’t going to come. Many games I ended up defending in my own area. I looked at the opposite arc, 50 meters away, and I thought: what am I doing here? But it was our game. We all ran so that we, those in blue, could get the three points “. There was no other.
And if there is any proper name from that season, it is Jamie Vardy. The ‘Bad Boy’ of the East Midlands. “When he got angry he brought out the best in himself. He drove the centrals crazy: he beat them, yelled at them, left their legs, insulted them … “ That year he emerged as one of the best strikers in Europe. Ranieri released him from the band and let him attack the backs of the defenders. The result? 24 league goals and the record for scoring in 11 consecutive games.
Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs, Mahrez, Kante, Drinkwater, Albrighton, Okazaki, and Vardy. A line-up that the children of Leicester are already reciting in a rush. ‘¡And of course, Leo Ulloa!’, they add. And it is that this story does not make sense without the figure of the Argentine. He was the clear example of a shock, player number 12. He entered 22 times from the bench and scored key goals for the achievement of the league. The 2-2 draw against West Ham, the double against Swansea… but the most memorable, the goal of the victory against Norwich in the last minute. It was the final stretch of the season and the ‘cyclone’ gave the ‘foxes’ the final push they needed. “That was crazy. If I try to describe the feeling of the stadium that day, I couldn’t. We all vent. In fact, a 0.3 magnitude earthquake was detected at the time of the celebration! “he says, amazed.
Between goal and goal, between epic and epic, the first ‘match ball’ came at Old Trafford. If Leicester won in Manchester, the Premier was theirs. But they did not go from a draw to one. “It would have been very nice to win the league at the Theater of Dreams”. Fate, capricious, made everything be decided in London. The rest is history.
Five years of, without a doubt, the greatest feat in modern football. Will we see something similar again? “It would be great, but I find it hard to believe”Ulloa points out. “Every time we see how football is evolving we give it more importance, because it was something unique, very difficult to achieve. With the team we had, the budget, a team that had been promoted a year ago, had been fighting for relegation … and the following year we were champions. The more time passes, I feel that everything we did is valued more. ” Let nothing and no one take away our illusion. We all want to be Leicester.
– .
