Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was the miracle man of soccer
BEHIND every champion team is a driving force and Leicester City Football Club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was one like no other, writes Chris Honnery.
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IT was one of the greatest underdog stories ever witnessed in sport.
A team of unlikelies, languishing away in a second tier football competition. The club debt-ridden. The trophy cabinet gathering dust.
Enter Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha — a humble and respected retail entrepreneur. In 2010, Mr Srivaddhanaprabha bought the Leicester City Football Club and so began the most improbable of fairytales which this week ended in tragedy.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha: The quiet, generous man who orchestrated a 5000-1 sporting fairytale
Leicester players pay tribute to owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha who died in a helicopter crash
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha was born April 4, 1958 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Legend has it, when he was young, he was involved in a high-speed car crash on the infamously dangerous roads of his homeland.
To the amazement of onlookers, he walked free from a sickening tangle of wreckage with little more than cuts and bruises.
He attributed his survival to a “lucky’’ golden Buddhist amulet which he’d purchased with a $700 loan from his father, and was wearing around his neck.
Later, he made his way up in the world by turning a single store in downtown Bangkok into duty-free giant King Power — worth approximately $7.2 billion.
He also became a serious collector of such “lucky’’ charms.
He soon became the owner of a 116-foot Sunseeker yacht with five cabins, a top speed of 26 knots, and an multimillion-dollar price tag — as well as a Gulfstream G-650 private jet, purchased for $70m from Bernie Ecclestone’s wife, Fabiana, in 2013.
But he never went searching for the spotlight. He was somewhat uncomfortable in the public eye and was almost never interviewed.
He was even given the honorific title of “Khun’’ Vichai.
He bought Leicester City in 2010. He became an instant fan favourite.
Often would the Leicester City faithful be handed vouchers entitling them to a free bag of doughnuts and a bottle of Singha Thai beer, or given heavily subsidised coach travel to away matches.
To mark his 60th birthday, sixty veteran supporters were told that this year’s season ticket was on the house.
In fact, season ticket prices for the last four seasons have remained frozen.
On a more serious note, in 2016 he wrote a cheque for more than $3.6m to a local children’s hospital.
His team soon returned the favour. The “Foxes’’ were playing in the second-tier competition of England’s Premier League when Mr Srivaddhanaprabha purchased them.
On a number of occasions, they failed to promote themselves into the ‘big league’, including one heartbreaking finish in the 2009-10 playoffs.
Fortunately, Leicester City earnt their long-awaited promotion, securing a spot in the 2014-15 Premier League.
To celebrate their promotion, Mr Srivaddhanaprabha invited the entire squad for a meal of caviar and fine wine in a plush west London restaurant.
Having paid the bill, he then gave each player and member of the club a £1,000 chip to gamble at a private members club nearby.
But the Foxes didn’t start the Premier League too well.
They spent most of the time at the bottom of the ladder and appeared to be destined for relegation back into the Championship League.
However, they fought back to win seven of their last nine games of the 2014-15 season, only going down to eventual champion Chelsea.
And so begins the miracle season of 2015-16. The bookies had Leicester City at 5000 to 1 to take out the competition and someone obviously didn’t tell the players.
They began their season strong — one loss from their first nine games.
A year on from sitting at the bottom of the ladder, they were on level points with Premier League giant Arsenal at the top of the table by mid-season.
Following a few more months of nerve-racking, edge-of-your-seat games, the boys in blue clinched enough points at the top of the table to claim their first ever English Premier League Championship.
“I always believed in the power of our spirit,” Srivaddhanaprabha said in 2016.
EPL executive chairman Richard Scudamore, who handed Srivaddhanaprabha that most unlikeliest of trophies two years ago, said: “Vichai was a gentleman who graced the game with his civility and charm and we will miss him enormously. His impact on Leicester — the football club and city — will be remembered forever.”
To mark the team’s illustrious title, Mr Srivaddhanaprabha gave each player a BMW i8 sports car, worth more than $180,000, and invited them to another big night out at a Leicester casino, where Srivaddhanaprabha reportedly hit one of his familiar lucky streaks, winning more than $3.6 million on the card tables in a few hours.
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha was killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday (Australian time).
The outpouring of emotion on Sunday reflected how highly he was regarded in the city.
Originally published as Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was the miracle man of soccer
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