Leicester City's improbable English
Premier League run, bolstered by Buddhist monks?
Cory Collins,
Sporting News, Feb. 10, 2016
Leicester,
UK -- Buddhism, at
its base, has "four noble truths." There will be suffering. That
suffering has a cause. That suffering will end.
And there's a
way to get there.
In Leicester -
where the population is 0.4 percent Buddhist per the most recent
census - some soccer fans believe their team has found that path
from longtime relegation and second-tier status to nirvana: a group
of Buddhist monks, a ritual, a new karmic balance allowing The
Foxes to exceed expectations. It seems silly, of course, this
conflation of sports and the supernatural. But everything about
this season is a little silly.
It's important
to note that something near-impossible is happening. Leicester City
currently sits atop the English Premier League standings, five
points ahead of Tottenham and Arsenal.
Why is that
notable? Because Leicester started the season at 2500-to-1 odds to
win the league. For context, the Philadelphia 76ers were 300/1 to
win the NBA title this year. No team outside of Manchester United,
Manchester City, Chelsea or Arsenal has won the EPL since
1994-95.
So what's happening? Better soccer. But another explanation is
going viral: Leicester's Thai, Buddhist monks.
Leicester is
owned and chaired by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, a Thai businessman
and CEO of King Power - a big player on the duty-free market. And
it appears Srivaddhanaprabha has allowed for an infusion of Thai
culture into Leicester - and it has taken root. Thai monks have
appeared at matches, as well as in The Foxes' dressing
room.
But it doesn't
stop there. And this isn't as new as viral fame (and American
late-to-the-party storytelling) would have you believe. As early as
2011, the Leicester Mercury was crediting the presence of Buddhist
monks as a spiritual boost for the soccer club. Leicester striker
Jamie Vardy told The Telegraph in December of 2014 that the club's
surge and avoidance of relegation could be, in part, attributed to
rituals brought into the clubhouse by the Buddhist
monks.
"I have to pinch
myself all the time about how my career has gone but I certainly
didn’t expect I’d be visited by monks and covered in holy water,”
Vardy said at the time. “They come with their water and literally
dip it in and then just slap you over the head as hard as they can
with little sticks.
"Before that
United game it was almost like I’d had a bath - heads, shoulders,
legs. It worked though didn’t it? They need to come back here more
often."
And for
Srivaddhanaprabha, it's not just a show. The owner's son, Aiyawatt,
took time away from the club last year after being ordained at
Bangkok's Thepsirin Bhuddist Temple.
"The Buddhist
monks have been in," Leicester forward David Nugent told the
Leicester Mercury at the time. "I hope we'll see them more
often."
And so they
have. And who can argue with the results? The Foxes - stick-beaten
but Buddhist-strong - are beating odds.
Of course, there
is much more at play than the presence of the Buddhist monks, as
Malaysian national team coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee was quick to point
out to The Star.
"You cannot rely
only on religion to win trophies," he said. "You need to work very,
very hard. You have to have the belief and hardwork to succeed …
only then will God help you.
“At the end of
the day, if you do not work hard and you expect things to drop in
your lap, you won’t get it.”
Be it by divine
intervention, good karma or, simply, good soccer, Leicester is
surging, sitting in first just one season removed from finishing
14th. Before that, the club spent a decade in the second- and
third-tier leagues of English professional football.
That suffering -
in sports terms - has ended. Rebirth began by avoiding relegation.
And now, this trip to the top of the standings? That must feel a
lot like soccer nirvana.