Leicester City Football Club (FC) created one of the biggest shocks in modern sports history by winning the English Premier League title in 2016. The club broke all traditional football predictions.
Behind this historic triumph sat a crucial factor from Southeast Asia. A Thai billionaire named Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha led the club through his company King Power Group.
The 2010 Acquisition
King Power Group officially bought Leicester City from Milan Mandaric in August 2010 for £39 million. The club was still struggling to find its footing in the Championship at that time.
Nobody expected a team from the second tier to eventually conquer the top flight under this new management. Vichai focused on the immediate practical steps first by clearing the club’s existing debts and stabilizing the internal management.
The new ownership then made a major commercial move by rebranding the home ground. Walkers Stadium was officially renamed the King Power Stadium in 2011. This decision marked a clear era of Thai corporate identity in English football.
The rebranding signaled long-term ambitions rather than a temporary financial experiment. Local fans slowly realized that the new board intended to completely modernize the club’s infrastructure from the ground up.
The Route Toward the Premier League Trophy
Leicester City earned promotion to the top flight in 2014 after winning the Championship. The first year in the Premier League proved extremely difficult. The team narrowly escaped relegation during their comeback season.
The club management then made a crucial decision by appointing Claudio Ranieri as the new manager. Ranieri structured a highly efficient playing squad.
To understand the scale of this achievement, one must look at the financial disparity in English football. The Premier League is typically dominated by a small group of wealthy clubs with massive global branding and multi-million dollar squads. Leicester City had odds of 5000-to-1 to win the league at the start of the season.
The recruitment team found unpolished talents like Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez for incredibly low transfer fees. These players were rejected or overlooked by bigger teams but found their form at the right time. The tactical system worked perfectly throughout the 2015/2016 Barclays Premier League season.
Ranieri relied on a disciplined counter-attacking style that maximized Vardy's speed and Mahrez's creativity. The team did not rely on heavy possession, choosing instead to strike quickly when opponents lost the ball.
An Inevitable Win in 2015/2016 Season
The performance of Leicester City remained consistent from the winter break until the end of the competition.
| Pos | Team | Matches | Win | Draw | Lose | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leicester City (C) | 38 | 23 | 12 | 3 | 81 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 38 | 20 | 11 | 7 | 71 |
| 3 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 19 | 13 | 6 | 70 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 38 | 19 | 9 | 10 | 66 |
| 5 | Manchester United | 38 | 19 | 9 | 10 | 66 |
| 6 | Southampton | 38 | 18 | 9 | 11 | 63 |
The club officially secured the trophy with two games left to play in the season. They finished the 38-match calendar with a total of 81 points which left traditional heavyweights far behind.
Arsenal finished as the runner-up with 71 points, followed closely by Tottenham Hotspur with 70 points and Manchester City with 66 points. This ten-point gap at the top demonstrated that the triumph was not a statistical fluke.
The players lost only three matches out of thirty-eight games in the toughest league in the world. The trophy presentation at the King Power Stadium turned into a massive global media event.
Massive Fans Respect
The historic 2016 title win earned Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha an immense level of respect from the Leicester City fan base. He became a highly regarded figure within the fans due to his constant presence at the club.
A period of structural stability and mutual respect was abruptly halted by an unexpected tragedy right outside the stadium gates.
Vichai passed away in a helicopter crash outside the stadium on October 27, 2018. The accident happened just meters away from the pitch where the club had celebrated the Premier League trophy two years prior. The loss had a direct impact on the entire city of Leicester.
The Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Memorial Garden was officially opened to the public on October 27, 2019, to commemorate his life. The garden sits precisely on the location of the crash, turning a site of tragedy into a peaceful place for remembrance on the first anniversary of the incident.
The ownership structure remained stable despite the immense grief surrounding the 2018 tragedy. His son Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha took over the chairman role to protect the club's long-term future.
Aiyawatt continued the exact operational principles established by his father.
