Fairy tales usually take place in places that don't exist, not in the humdrum of the English Midlands. Yet it is here in Leicester that the greatest modern football fairytale took place. Go to Leicester and relive – with Vardy and Schmeichel – the legendary 2016 league title.
Due to its success, the club is sometimes called a one-hit wonder, but if you look at the table, will see that it is not that bad. Of course, they don’t compete for the title anymore, but where it used to be a relegation candidate, The Foxes now regularly play in the top half of the Premier League.
The King Power Stadium was built in 2002 to replace Filbert Street, where Leicester City had played football for over a hundred years. In England, new stadiums shot up at that time because of the Taylor Report and Leicester could not be left behind. Unfortunately, many of those stadiums lack a bit of originality in the design, including here. The stadium is fully equipped and nicely decorated in the blue club colours on the inside, but otherwise it is a fairly standard stadium where you are quite far from the pitch by English standards.
An absolute plus is that the club continued to play in the same area when it moved from away Filbert Street: The King Power Stadium is located on Filbert Way, barely 200 meters from the ground where the old stadium once stood. For Leicester fans, it may not have the charm of its old home, but the league title won here will forever remain sacred ground.
It was the saddest day Leicester City have had so far at the new stadium, the day of chairman Vichais Srivaddhanaprabha’s tragic accident. The Thai businessman’s helicopter took off from the centre circle in the stadium after a home game in 2018, like always, but ran into trouble and crashed into the parking lot outside the stadium. All occupants (the chairman and four others) were killed instantly. The shock was huge, because 'Vichai' was very popular in Leicester (especially for a foreign owner).
The VS Memorial Garden has been created on the site of the disaster, behind the southeast corner of the stadium. As a tribute to the chairman and his fellow victims, but now the garden is a memorial to all those who feel connected to Leicester City and lost someone.
Not far from the King Power Stadium was – on the street of the same name – Filbert Street, home of Leicester City from 1891 to 2002. Today, little in the place is reminiscent of the football past, except for the Lineker Road, named after Gary Lineker, which cuts across the old stadium ground. Not the most beautiful tribute to the club legend, a soulless street over the largely vacant lot.
Yet for those who look carefully, there is still something to be found from the old stadium. On Filbert Street, turn the corner to Brummoor Street, a quintessential English street with small working-class houses like so many in England. Halfway through the street, however, at numbers 49 and 51 something stands out: The brutal concrete facade of the ground floor was clearly only used later. It portrays the football past of the stadium, because this used to be the entrance to the branch of Filbert Street. Where the grey facade is now, thousands of supporters used to walk under the house through the stadium.
Just down the street (on the corner with Lineker Road) a charming mural of Leicester fans was created after the 2016 league title.
If there was one downside to the title of Leicester City - albeit really small - it was that the Foxes became champions without playing, on Monday evening. The last remaining challengers, Tottenham, did not win at Chelsea and Leicester were champions. All the players watched the games together at Jamie Vardy's home and the party started. Then the players continued into the early hours and rented Club Republic.
The next day, fans got their first glimpse of the new-fangled champions, many still hungover, outside San Carlo on Granby Street. The team was invited by manager Claudio Ranieri to enjoy a festive lunch in the Italian restaurant.
Two weeks after the title was won, Leicester City really were honoured as champions after the league finished. The players rode an open-top bus through the centre of the city, ending at Victoria Park, southeast of the city and not far from the stadium. As many as 240,000 fans came here to celebrate the title and cheer on Riyad Mahrez, Ngolo Kanté and all the others, all the while lifelong Leicester fans Kasabian were blasting out tunes. It was a day never to be forgotten.
Street art is frequently present on the streets of Leicester and local football pride is of course a rewarding subject. On Kate Street you will find a meter-long mural of the champions of 2016, with the main players and the manager in the centre of the artwork.
Although Leicester City has been around since 1884, it had never won the prestigious FA Cup - until 2021. It delivered a thunderous upset by beating the great Chelsea at Wembley and taking the cup back to the Midlands. On Walnut Street, you'll find a large mural of some foxes (the club's symbol) curiously sniffing an FA Cup.
Not far from the King Power Stadium is the Local Hero, a pub bustling with Leicester City fans on match days. Footage from the pub on Aylestone Road went viral in 2016 when it proved to be the epicentre of Leicester's glee on the night the club won its first championship title.
It is best to purchase a membership for tickets to home games of Leicester City, because otherwise you will not be able to purchase tickets for Premier League games. You can order these – just like match tickets – on the official club site. Another option are the football travel agencies and ticket sites.
From Leicester city centre you can walk to the King Power Stadium in about 20 minutes, but if you don't feel like that, you can also take the bus at Welford Place, after which you are in front of the stadium in just a few minutes. Leicester train station is also just under 20 minutes from the stadium.
Images: Shutterstock, BSR Agency
