5000-1

Leicester City Football Club pulled off one of the greatest feats in the history of English football, capturing the Premier League title with two matches to spare. Start with the fact that only a year ago the Foxes had to play their way out of a hole that seemed certain to see them relegated. Add the fact that at the start of the 2015-2016 season, oddsmakers set Leicester’s chances at winning the title at 5000-1. (For an American this is hard to wrap one’s head around, but I suppose it would be like a Triple A baseball team, such as the Fresno Grizzlies, winning the World Series.) What’s even more startling is Leicester’s puny team payroll of 48.2 million pounds, compared to the huge payrolls of giants like Liverpool (152 million pounds), Arsenal (192 million pounds), and Manchester City (193 million pounds). I suppose the moral is that while money can buy talent, it cannot buy heart and desire and belief.

By all that is logical and holy in football the Foxes should not be champions of the Premier League. But don’t tell them that. All season long this remarkable club played with a freedom and abandon that defied logic and was often beautiful to watch; they won with spectacular play and they won by grinding matches out; they won with Jamie Vardy leading the line -- and they won without him. Mainly, they won together, that was what made watching them so enjoyable.Their talent was complimentary and reinforcing and expertly marshalled by manager Claudio Ranieri. They won because the spine of the side, Kasper Schmeichel in goal, Robert Huth and Wes Morgan at center back, and N’Golo Kante in the holding midfielder role, was consistently better than any comparable side in the league. In fact, Kante may be the most valuable player of all. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez and Leonardo Ulloa score goals, but Kante is the constant in midfield, intercepting passes, winning challenges, and making timely tackles that frustrate the opposition and kill counterattacks. Kante never stops running -- he is perpetual and determined motion.

This was a title 132 years in the making and I for one hope Leicester supporters enjoy every minute of their turn in the winner’s circle.  

I’ve been thinking about Leicester’s accomplishment since Monday night when my beloved Chelsea (huge payroll, disinterested players, dismal season) erased a two goal deficit to earn a draw against Tottenham, the result of which tipped the title to Leicester. It was a match marred by cheap fouls and bad behavior. Twelve yellow cards were issued, nine against Tottenham. At the end of the match, Guus Hiddink, Chelsea’s 69-year-old interim manager, was knocked to the ground. Ugly stuff. But that wasn’t the focus of my rumination; I was thinking about Leicester in relation to American politics and the rise of Donald Trump, and wondering if there is any possibility that Trump will pull off a political miracle as unfathomable as Leicester’s footballing miracle.

I don’t know if the odds of Trump’s winning are 5000-1, but I assume they are long. It’s one thing to win primaries, another to prevail in a general election. Will Trump’s atavistic message resonate with a wider electorate, particularly women and Latinos? Doubtful. Trump is the candidate of fearful, resentful, and spiteful white men who yearn for the days when women and minorities knew their place, and America built stuff. Those days are long gone. It’s like yearning for the days when Great Britain ruled the Indian subcontinent and a mediocre white bloke could pretend he was a royal. Ian Masters, host of Background Briefing, has a theory that Trump doesn’t want to be president as much as he wants to win the presidency. Five minutes after his inauguration I think Trump would be asking himself, “OK, now what?” It’s not that Trump is anyone’s puppet -- his ego is too massive for that -- but I think his temperament is completely ill-suited for high political office. Emperor maybe, president never.

Leicester’s march to the Premier League crown was full of passion and joy; by contrast, the American general election in November will be full of lies and bombast. Whether the winner is Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, millions of people will have a foul taste in their mouths the day after.