Year of the Underdog Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Before Leicester's historic title win, the only other teams to have won the Premier League title since its formation in 1992 were: Manchester United, Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea (the defending champions at the start of the 2015-16 season) and Manchester City. Season 2015-16 was a poor season for Chelsea, as manager Jose Mourinho had fallen out with the squad, and they finished a dismal 10th. However, their form revived when they came back from 2-0 to draw with Tottenham (played on 2nd May 2016), much to the delight of both Arsenal and Leicester fans. Liverpool, a team in transition following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers and the arrival of Jurgen Klopp, also finished outside the top seven, in eighth place. Southampton and West Ham United both qualified for the Europa League, a rare occurrence.

Jamie Vardy proved to be an unlikely hero. Originally a youth player at his boyhood club, Sheffield Wednesday, he worked his way up the ranks at Stocksbridge Park Steels, a non-league team based in the South Yorkshire town of Stocksbridge, and was an integral part of their promotion to the Northern Premier League. In 2010, he moved to another non-league team, Halifax Town - before joining Fleetwood Town and moving up to the Conference League. He joined Leicester, managed by fellow ex-Wednesday player Nigel Pearson, in 2012. Leicester were promoted to the Premier League at the end of the 2013-14 season, with Vardy scoring 16 goals.

Here's some stats: Vardy, Mahrez and Kante all made the PFA Team of the Year. Leicester dominated the individual player and manager awards; Ranieri won Manager of the Season, Vardy won Premier League Player of the Season and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year, and Mahrez - the only player to score a hat trick for Leicester - won PFA Players' Player of the Year. Vardy also won Player of the Month for October and November, while Ranieri won Manager of the Month in November, and then in March and April consecutively. Vardy was the Premier League's joint second top scorer with 24 goals, an honour he shared with Manchester City's Sergio Aguero. On the goalkeeping front, Schmeichel kept 15 clean sheets, jointly with David de Gea and Joe Hart of the two Manchester teams, although they were beaten by one clean sheet, by Chelsea's Petr Cech.

Sadly, Leicester's fortunes did not last; Ranieri was sacked in February 2017 and replaced by his assistant manager, the late Craig Shakespeare, who stayed until the following season, when he was replaced by Claude Puel. In 2018, Leicester suffered another blow when chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was killed in a helicopter crash outside the stadium. Players and fans alike attended his funeral, and his son Aiyawatt took over as chairman. Although Leicester had another memorable season in 2019-20, when they came 5th, thumped Southampton 9-0 and beat Manchester City to win their first FA Cup under Brendan Rodgers, they were relegated at the end of the 2022-23 season, with Rodgers being sacked in April after poor results. Although they had a brief hope spot when they went 1-0 up against West Ham United in their final match of the season, fellow strugglers Everton beat Bournemouth, pushing Leicester down into 18th place.

Several of the title-winning squad went on to join other Premier League clubs over time; Harry Maguire to Manchester United, N'golo Kante, Ben Chilwell and Danny Drinkwater to Chelsea, and Riyad Mahrez to Manchester City. Other players moved abroad: Shinji Okazaki to Spanish side Huesca, Leonardo Ulloa to Mexican side Pachuca, Kasper Schmeichel to Nice in France, and Christian Fuchs to Charlotte FC in the US. Robert Huth and Wes Morgan both retired. However, Vardy stayed, and it paid off. He was 37 years old and still the club's top scorer when Leicester returned to the Premier League in the 2024-25 season under Enzo Maresca, who went on to replace Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea the following season. Steve Cooper took over the Leicester management job.