A decade has passed since Leicester City completed one of football's most astonishing achievements, and as the club now prepares for life in League One following consecutive relegations, the memories of that impossible triumph feel more surreal than ever.
Back in May 2016, at odds of 5,000-1, Claudio Ranieri's Leicester side stunned the football world by claiming the Premier League title without even playing on the day it was confirmed. Tottenham Hotspur's 2-2 draw with Chelsea on 2 May handed the Foxes an unassailable lead, sparking scenes of jubilation across the city.
The following day, media outlets scrambled to reach the club's Belvoir Drive training ground, only to find themselves redirected to King Power Stadium as crowds swelled. Eventually, eight journalists who regularly covered the club received a discreet invitation to return to Belvoir Drive, where they were welcomed into a family room near reception. When Ranieri entered, he was greeted with a spontaneous standing ovation before spending 45 minutes speaking candidly with the assembled press.
Ranieri's appointment the previous summer had been viewed with skepticism, given he hadn't managed in England since leaving Chelsea in 2004. Yet his unconventional methods helped forge an unlikely spirit within the squad. After Leicester recorded their first clean sheet of the season against Crystal Palace in October 2015, Ranieri took his players out to make pizza together.
Former defender Robert Huth explained the thinking behind such gestures. "It sounds funny — we're keeping a clean sheet and gone for pizza but you then end up speaking to someone in the squad you probably wouldn't have spoken to at training because there's 25 of you," he said. "If you're out and about... it's just tiny little things and you take criticism differently when you talk in a social environment. You don't want to sit in a meeting room being told what to do."
That camaraderie helped unleash the talents of Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, the latter scoring 24 league goals as Leicester's counter-attacking approach terrorized opponents — a style Ranieri likened to the RAF.
Not every player experienced the title-clinching night the same way. While most of the squad gathered at Vardy's house to watch Tottenham's collapse against Chelsea — some even held up by crowds outside and needing to wait at a local police station — winger Nathan Dyer was elsewhere, at the hospital with his wife Laura following the birth of their second child two days earlier.
"I had the laptop out watching the game in hospital, the boys were at the party. I wasn't able to make it but I'd never miss the birth of my child," Dyer recalled. "It was a strange feeling. It was surreal, like it wasn't real at the time but it was... It was the whole city, even people who were not fans were so happy Leicester had achieved this."
Dyer's own arrival at the club had been dramatic in itself, joining on loan from Swansea on deadline day and being flown in by the late owner Khun Vichai's helicopter to beat the transfer deadline while his pregnant wife waited amid a house full of moving boxes.
The title race itself was tense, with Leicester trailing Arsenal by two points at the turn of the year before losing just once in their final 16 matches. As the unlikely triumph drew closer, the city's fascination grew — Vardy even acquired a lookalike in local postman Lee Chapman, while Ranieri had a sausage named in his honor by butchers W Archer & Son. The pork, fennel, garlic and chilli creation won an award and, at its peak, sold roughly 12kg daily.
Shop owner Sean Jeynes remembered the frenzy fondly. "It was surreal that day. How did that ever happen?" he said. "It had a massive effect on the city, it had a great effect on everybody. Everyone was much happier."
Ten years later, with Russell Martin now tasked with steering Leicester back up from League One, those magical memories remain a poignant reminder of just how extraordinary — and fleeting — footballing fairytales can be.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.