Leicester winning the Premier League title is a fairy-tale come true. Over the course of an entire season, an unheralded club, largely unknown outside the UK, have consistently outplayed all comers and left Spurs, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man U & Chelsea all in their trail. It may signify that the constellations are aligned to generate a whole host of miracles.
1)GARY LINEKER PRESENTING MOTD IN HIS PANTS
It is worth recalling that Leicester were nearly relegated last season. Even the most diehard Foxes fans would not have dreamed of their team winning the title. Those fans deluded enough to have taken a punt on them back in August faced odds of 5000-1 and now stand to collect a small fortune. Which is presumably why Gary Lineker - a diehard Leicester fan himself - felt comfortable enough to promise to present the first MOTD of next season only in his pants secure in the knowledge that he would never have to follow through (pun intended). Straight after tweeting this, he was trolled by his Missus Danielle Bux, "Given your history, hope they're clean" based on his notorious track record of soiling his pants whilst playing for England during the 1990 World Cup. As with Lord Ashdown promising to eat his hat if the Tories won the election, anyone planning to take a dare based on unlikely outcomes, would be advised to reconsider.
2)LEICESTER WINNING THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Leicester have never won the league. Only a few years ago, Jamie Vardy was playing non-league football. Instead now, he has been named the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year. His strike partner Riyad Mahrez is the Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year. Next season, Leicester will be in the Champions League up against the likes of Barca, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. Could they top what is already arguably the biggest sporting upset in history by winning the Champions League? Right now, the sky is the limit.
3)ENGLAND WINNING THE EUROS
Vardy will be England's talismanic striker in Euro 2016. For those romantics amongst us, the Leicester story offers hope that anything is possible in life. As long as you believe enough and work hard then the world can be your oyster. Even the England team, after their recent win against world champions Germany in Berlin, might do a Leicester and win the Euros. Or perhaps we should make a distinction between highly unlikely outcomes and impossible scenarios.
4)THE BEAUTIFUL GAME RETURNS TO ITS ROOTS
It just goes to show that the beautiful game still has some soul. Leicester embody the old fashioned, unglamorous virtues of teamwork, work ethic and local talent able to take on the prima donna superstars and giants of 21st century corporate football and beat them. More importantly, could Leicester's triumph represent a sea-change; a watershed moment? The game would certainly do well to return to its roots with affordable ticket prices rather than being a massive commercial enterprise in which clubs are the playthings of oligarchs. Of course, Leicester are owned by Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha - owner of King Power - but their preferred starting XI cost an estimated £22 mn - less than a tenth of Man City's first XI. Whilst Wayne Rooney's weekly salary of £300,000 would take a person on the average wage around twelve years to earn. Could we now see a shift towards nurturing local talent through academies rather than splashing out on ready-made superstars? Could the national game become authentic again with football clubs reconnecting with their communities?
5)A SOCIALIST IN THE WHITE HOUSE & CORBYN BECOMING PM
Sport and politics have always been intertwined. The Romans had bread and circuses. We have football. The Leicester story of the underdog overcoming huge odds to emerge victorious is as old as David versus Goliath. And everyone loves it when the small guy sticks it to The Man. Who would have predicted that self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders could still be in the race for the White House causing upsets against the establishment favourite Hilary Clinton? Whilst on our side of the pond, the Tories are in crisis. Following on from Osborne's latest omnishambles budget, the IDS resignation and David Cameron's Panama Papers scandal, this could be their Poll Tax moment. The fall-out from the EU referendum is likely to be toxic. So come 2020, could Jeremy Corbyn find himself entering 10 Downing Street? This might be a good time to take a punt. And when a week is a long time in politics then four years is an eternity. Anything seems possible now - all bets are off!