Leicester City are enjoying a big hike in the number of their Thai fans with new converts jumping on the bandwagon of the rising Foxes.
A number of Thais decided to follow Leicester when they were taken over by a
Thai fans react while watching Leicester City play Manchester United on TV at Bangkok's King Power Complex. Pattarapong Chatpattarasill
leading businessman from the Kingdom six years ago.
Meanwhile, diehard Thai fans of perennial favourites like Manchester United and Liverpool have switched their allegiance to the Foxes because their beloved clubs were out of the Premier League title race this season months ago.
Thailand's growing contingent of Leicester fans guzzled free beers and plates of fried rice laid on by the club's Thai owners at a raucous big screen broadcast of Sunday's nail-biting 1-1 draw with Manchester United in a Premier League match.
Claudio Ranieri's side would have been crowned champions with a victory at Old Trafford but, with thousands of fans back in Leicester and millions of new supporters around the world watching on television, they fell behind to Anthony Martial's eighth-minute goal.
Leicester defender Wes Morgan equalised for the visitors with a 17th minute header before Foxes midfielder Danny Drinkwater was sent off in the closing moments.
The ranks of Leicester supporters in Thailand are swelling each week as the Premier League leaders, dubbed the 'Siamese Foxes' by the Thai press, would claim the title if Tottenham failed to win at Chelsea early this morning.
In Bangkok, about 1,000 fans gathered for the Sunday evening outdoor screening at King Power Complex -- the Thai duty-free giant founded by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who bought the midlands club in 2010.
Lubricated by free beer and the see-sawing game, the lively crowd -- many sporting club shirts, blue bandanas or Fox-shaped stickers on their cheeks -- screamed on every Leicester attack.
As the clocked ticked down, the crowd erupted -- confident that the Premier League title would soon have a Thai connection.
"The Siamese Foxes will win the next game against Everton [on Saturday] for sure, it's a home game," said Wattapat Pornpiwat, a King Power employee who started supporting the team after Vichai's takeover.
"It is historic for Thai people and the country that this team is 'No.1'... We'll coming back here to cheer until we're champions," added a jubilant Wattapat.
Retiree Naruepatra Dhanabhumi, who has followed Leicester since the Thai takeover six years ago, said: "It is 100 percent sure they win the title in the end. It's better to clinch it at home in Leicester's next game against Everton on Saturday at the club's King Power Stadium."
Fans cheered on their new heroes in blue, but they also did the once unthinkable in the football-mad country -- boo Manchester United.
English Premier League giants Manchester United and Liverpool traditionally draw a strong following in Thailand.
Manchester United fan Ussawin Tongpraparn attended the event and even he wanted Leicester to win, saying: "It's the team of Thai people, I couldn't be any prouder.''
"It's good to get a draw at Manchester," said Thaweewat Ingkathanachai, a student who switched to following Leicester from Liverpool.
"But it's disappointing not to win it today. I just hope Chelsea beat Tottenham."
Vichai and his son Aiyawatt want to turn Leicester into a global brand and will soon be armed with the windfall from next season's Premier League television rights and potentially a remarkable underdog title win to boost the fan base.
Leicester, the 5,000-1 long shots to win the title before this season started, have been blessed by Buddhist monk Phra Prommangkalachan, better known as Chao Khun Thongchai, with his holy cloths and amulets.
Akadet Inkome, a follower of Chao Khun Thongchai, said: "They are very sacred. The talismans will bring victory to the team.''
In the city of Leicester on Sunday, fans were also in a happy mood.
"Before this, no one knew who we were," said Kimberley Rayner, 21, hoarse from screaming at the televisions in the hugely overcrowded Counting House pub.
Rayner, who asserted that she has been a Leicester supporter since her birth, added: "You can't put words to it. It's not about the money -- our whole team gets paid what some of these stars get -- but passion and dreams."
Karen Fox, 56, said she had attended her first Leicester City game at 10, "when it cost 25 pence to get in and 5 pence for a programme." Now she happily pays more than £415 (US$605) a year for season tickets.
"It's the victory of the underdog, isn't it?" her spouse, Jenny Fox, said. "That's what everyone loves, that anything can happen."
Chris Marquis, 32, came here from Toronto, after being recruited to Leicester Law School.
"I didn't know anything about Leicester, but a friend told me on Facebook that they don't have a very good soccer team," he said, managing a pint of lager in one hand and a toddler in the other. "I just went back and sent him a note: 'You were saying?'"
Leicester's winning the Premier League, he said, "would be like a Canadian Football League team winning the NFL."
Leicester is one of England's oldest cities, founded 2,000 years ago, and is among its most diverse, with more than 50 percent of its 330,000 inhabitants estimated now to be non-white. Twenty percent of the population is Muslim, and almost 20 percent is Hindu or Sikh.
But the people here rub together, with more Asian supporters for football than in most English cities.
At Leicester Cathedral, where Richard III, whose remains were found in a parking lot, was buried in March last year with great ceremony after a squabble with York over his bones, his statue wore a Leicester City scarf.
Rev Peter Hobson said the attention was wonderful for the city, and created enormous good feeling after a week when memories of the disaster in 1989 at Hillsborough Stadium, when 96 soccer fans were crushed through police incompetence, filled the headlines with the findings of a new inquest.
"Hillsborough is the tragedy of football, and Leicester City is the opposite," Hobson said. "For some people who say, 'Football isn't a matter of life and death, it's more important,' this has been powerful." agencies/Bangkok post