SPORTS

Long-shot Leicester City poised for historic, stunning Premier League win

Andy Johnson CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Friday, April 29, 2016 6:16PM EDT Last Updated Friday, April 29, 2016 10:42PM EDT

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If a long-shot English soccer team manages to win just one of its next three games, it will clinch the English Premier League title, stun bookies and football fans the world over, and reward at least one man with a 5,000-1 payout.

Leicester City, pronounced 'Less-ter' and known by fans as the Foxes, has never won the title, and doing so would represent one of the greatest sporting upsets of all time.

The team was a 5,000-1 outsider at the outset of the season -- greater odds than bookies have given to, say, Elvis Presley being found alive, or the Loch Ness monster surfacing and posing for selfies with holidaymakers.

It simply wasn't an option for the team to beat powerhouses like Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City over the course of a nine-month season.

"It's quite unbelievable -- it's a fairy tale, words cannot describe what's going on with Leicester, it's really quite remarkable," said a bubbly Leigh Herbert, a lifelong fan of the team who was reached in Estonia.

The Foxes were promoted to the Premier League in 2014, but were on the chopping block and facing likely demotion until the team managed a stunning 7-2 record in its last nine games of the season to claw up from last place (20th) and finish 14th and escape relegation.

That unlikely run may have boosted the team's confidence and helped propel them into this season's success.

Now, the Foxes can secure their Premier League win with a victory over Manchester United on Sunday.

Herbert said his faith in the team has been growing over the last couple of seasons, and he detected a new spark last year that suggested the Foxes were capable of doing great things.

"I'll be honest, when I saw them get promoted to the Premier League they were brilliant, and then last season when they were in the premier league they struggled a little bit to start off with but they showed at the end, they fought so hard to not get relegated and it showed what they were capable of," Herbert told CTV News Channel.

And when the team brought in Claudio Ranieri, a veteran Italian manager who has skippered teams throughout Europe, Herbert finally decided it was worth putting money on his club -- even if it was just a fiver.

"I just thought, he's going to bring something because he's such an experienced manager, he's managed some of the top clubs...and so I had a few drinks and that's when I put the bet on because I was sure he was going to do something -- probably not win the Premier League but I just knew in my heart something good was going to happen this season," Herbert said.

He added: "If they win I'm going to take, in total, 20,000 pounds (CDN$36,690) ) from a 5-pound stake," Herbert said.

Here are some comparable longshot odds posted by bookmakers, to give context to what 5,000-1 odds really mean: