Leicester City coach Claudio Ranieri said on Tuesday that he believed at Christmas his team would win the Premier League, even as he continued to tell the media his only goal was avoiding relegation. "Now I can say it, I always knew we'd win," Ranieri told Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano the day after Leicester's triumph. He said he had always denied any championship ambitions until almost the end of the season because "that's the way I am made, I have always preferred doing things rather than talking about them". Asked to pinpoint when he really became convinced Leicester could win, he said: "It was at Christmas. Relegation had been avoided and we gathered together to talk in the changing rooms and we said to each other, 'Let's go for it, we've got nothing to lose'." Ranieri played down his own role in the achievement, saying that teamwork was key to the club's success and his players had no shortage of ability.
12 images that show the odd, odd world we live in.
The English city's unheralded football club is on the brink of becoming league champions for the first time in their 132-year history, with just three defeats all season.
At the start of the English football season last August, bookmakers in Britain were offering odds of 5,000-1 against LeicesterCity winning the Premier League. 5,000-1? Now, let's put that into perspective.
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