240,000 fans line the streets for Leicester City's historic Premier League win parade
An estimated 240,000 people gathered to watch the Leicester City team parade the Premier League trophy through the streets of the city. A convoy of four open-top buses carrying Leicester's title-winning heroes - plus newly crowned Manager of the Year Claudio Ranieri - have been welcomed by ecstatic supporters leaning out of windows and shouting from rooftops.
The parade began at Jubilee Square in the city centre before heading to Victoria Park through streets lined with bunting, following a fairytale season for the Foxes who defeated odds of 5,000-1 to win their first top-division league title in 132 years.
Two weeks ago, Leicester were crowned champions at the King Power Stadium after Tottenham failed to beat Chelsea on 2 May. During an impressive campaign, they only lost three matches and finished their final 12 matches in an unbeaten streak.
Amongst the stars waving from the buses was star striker and England international, Jamie Vardy, who shouted: "It's unbelievable". His manager, the enigmatic Claudio Ranieri, told the fans: "We played with our hearts and our soul and the people saw this."
The celebrations ran until 9pm, with appearances by star players. The last time the club held a parade like this was two years ago when Leicester won the Championship title and were promoted to the Premier League.
The city had come to a standstill earlier in the day as park and ride services were closed along with some roads. Train commuters were also affected by an "extremely busy" network leading to long delays.
Two of Leicester's players, Vardy and midfielder, Danny Drinkwater, were also named in England's 26-man provisional squad for Euro 2016, which begins on 10 June. It is likely that they will feature in upcoming friendlies against Turkey, Australia and Portugal before the squad is whittled down to 23.
Drinkwater described the club's astonishing win as "madness". He told lcfc.com: "If you'd said that at the start of the season everyone would be saying 'no chance'. But we've proved a hell of a lot of people wrong". If Vardy or Drinkwater play during the Euro 2016 tournament, held in France, they will be the first outfield Leicester City players to play for the national team in a World Cup or European Championship.
Later on Monday evening (16 May), the BBC reported that Claudio Ranieri was named as Manager of the Year 2016 by The League Managers Association (MNA), noting that Ranieri is only the second non-British or Irish manager to win the accolade alongside Arsene Wenger, who won the award once in 2002 and again in 2004.
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