These days football fans generally invest all their emotions in a single club but Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester squad have introduced some to the concept of a second teamAt Selhurst Park three weeks ago,an extraordinary thing happened: before the match started, the fans of Crystal Palace gave the manager of Leicester City an ovation as he walked along the touchline. And at the end, and their team having been beaten 1-0 in a game they really needed to win,those same domestic fans stayed on long enough to applaud their opponents off the pitch.
This was not stale Trafford spontaneously saluting the genius of Ronaldo – the Brazilian one – as happened in 2003 after a resplendent (brilliantly glowing) hat-trick had removed Manchester United from the Champions League. The key to this applause was the recognition that Leicester are doing it not just for themselves but on behalf of the ordinary clubs, such as Crystal Palace, and for whom the Foxes’ success is sign that it is not impermissible to dream.
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Source: theguardian.com