Newly crowned English Premier League champions Leicester City on Thursday received a royal seal of approval at Bangkok’s Grand Palace, with the Thai-owned team presenting its trophy to a portrait of the king before a bus parade through the capital.
The East Midlands team is visiting the soccer-mad Southeast Asian nation as part of a publicity blitz after its fairy tale title triumph.
Day two of the tour focused on Thailand’s top institution, with a visit to the sprawling Bangkok palace complex of the revered 88-year-old Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has been hospitalized for most of the past two years.
Photo: Bloomberg
Local television showed billionaire club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, alongside his son, Aiyawatt, and manager Claudio Ranieri, presenting the trophy to a portrait of the king as they and the team then took a deep bow.
The team later went on an open-top bus parade through the capital’s notoriously gridlocked streets, which were briefly cleared of traffic thanks to a police escort.
In scorching conditions — with the mercury hovering at about 37oC — key players, including captain Wes Morgan and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, waved Thai flags and snapped pictures of each other on their phones as crowds cheered them on.
Photo: AFP
Vichai’s King Power brand, a duty-free monopoly that has made him a billionaire and is emblazoned on both Leicester’s shirts and its stadium, ensured that the start of the parade route was filled with employees — including a group of cheerleaders — decked out in team colors.
Thousands of fans and curious bystanders also lined the route, which wound its way from a King Power-owned shopping and hotel complex through Bangkok’s downtown commercial district.
Most Thais knew little about the one-time minnows before Vichai bought the club in 2010.
However, many are readily changing — or at least doubling-up — their allegiances from perennial English favorites like Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea, clubs that are much more commonplace on advertising billboards across the kingdom.
Ben, a 27-year-old worker in a 7/11 store along the parade route, was one of those who stopped to watch the bus pass by.
“I am a fan of Liverpool, but I am happy to see football stars from UK,” he told reporters. “It’s not often we can see football stars in Bangkok.”
Photographs from the palace visit showed the team kneeling in front of Bhumibol’s portrait.
It has become common practice for subjects to sit on the floor or kneel to avoid being higher than the king.
Thai athletes often present their medals and trophies at the palace as a way to show respect.
Vichai has brought some of the kingdom’s traditions to Leicester City, with Buddhist monks regularly flown out to bless players and the stadium.
During their title celebrations at the King Power stadium, a portrait of Bhumibol was held aloft as players like Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Danny Drinkwater reveled in their remarkable league success.
King Bhumibol, the world’s longest-serving monarch, is protected by one of the world’s most draconian royal defamation laws, making debate about the royal family’s role inside Thailand all but impossible.
Under junta rule in the past two years, use of the lese majeste law has skyrocketed, with some transgressors jailed for more than 20 years.
Not all of Bangkok’s citizens, many of whom have to endure agonizingly long daily commutes, were happy with the rush-hour road closures.
“Do you have to do a parade, isn’t winning enough?” wrote one user of Pantip, a popular Thai social media forum, before adding “God bless Man U.”
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
RSS