He traveled extensively, traveling all the way to the Thai business community; as an Asian, he won the respect and support of many Premier League fans; he was pragmatic and low-key, making a civilian team the king's division. This issue of Broadway brings you the creator of Leicester's miracle, Vichai Srivatanablapa.
Basic information
Name: Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha
Birth date: April 4, 1958
Nationality: Thai
Place of birth: Bangkok
Position: Former Leicester City Club owner
Joined the club in August 2010
Evaluation of the club's contribution:
Funding (4): ★★★★
Concern for the team (5): ★★★★★
Club Results (5): ★★★★★
The Road to Wealth
Born in April 1958 in Bangkok, Thailand, Vichai was originally named Vichai Raksriaksorn. His grandfather was a native of Xikeng Village, Zhao'an County, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, and his family came to Thailand during the wave of China's south China sea, and Wei Chai's father was a famous Thai Zhao'an industrialist.
Thanks to his well-to-do family, the young Vichai received a good education, and after graduating from college, he worked as a middle manager in the family business, earning about 40,000 baht (about $1,128) a month.
In 1989, the 31-year-old took a fancy to the duty-free business, founded his duty-free retail brand, King Power, and opened his first store at Mahatun Plaza in downtown Bangkok, which mainly sold Thai handicrafts. Since then, in order to facilitate customers, he has opened a pick-up point at Don Mueang Airport. This is a very stable period of development of the imperial power tax exemption, but in the process of the company's slow growth, Vichai has gradually established close ties with the top level of Thai politics and business.
In 2001, Thai telecommunications tycoon and former Manchester City boss Thaksin Shinawatra was elected Prime Minister of Thailand and decided to build Suvarnabhumi International Airport. With his relationship with Thaksin, Vichai was successfully granted an exclusive license to sell duty-free goods at the new airport. For a tourist country like Thailand, Vichai, who dominates the business of duty-free shops at the capital airport, is like getting a "license that allows printing money." In this regard, Vichai's wealth began to accumulate rapidly, and King Power Duty Free gradually developed into thailand's largest tourism retail group, covering duty free, hotels, catering, entertainment, sports and so on.
At the same time, the shrewd Vichai has always maintained great respect for the Thai royal family. Since the 1990s, he has been sponsoring charity projects for the Royal Thai Family. In 2006, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the accession of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej to the throne, he specially ordered millions of yellow armbands with the words "We love the king". It is worth mentioning that Vichai's surname, Srivaddhanaprabha, was given by the King of Thailand in recognition of his contribution to charity, which means "light of glorious progress" in Thai.
In September 2006, when thai military staged a coup d'état and Thaksin was forced to step down and go into exile, pro-Thaksin's pro-Thaks party won the 2007 election, but by 2008 the anti-Thaksin Yellow Shirt movement was intensifying. It was one of the most chaotic and turbulent periods in Thailand in recent years, but the positive and socially friendly Vichai, with his extremely valuable contacts in the royal family and political and business circles, not only survived the political turmoil, but gradually became thailand's most important businessman.
Entering football
Like many Thais, football is Vichai's biggest hobby outside of work, and if there are Manchester United or Arsenal games on TV, he will sit down early and watch them and know almost all the players. In 2010, his career was in full swing, and he naturally set his sights on the British arena, and after inspecting a number of clubs, Vichai chose Leicester City Club, which was still working in the Championship at the time. In response, The reason given by Vichai is that "the color of Leicester City's home jersey (blue) is the same as his royal tax exemption".
Initially, Vichai signed Leicester City on a three-year shirt-chest advertising sponsorship contract, and then bought an 80% stake in the club in August 2010 from former club owner Milan Mandalic for £39 million. On 18 May 2011, Vichai successfully acquired the remaining 20% stake in Cronus Sports Management in Indonesia, becoming the sole shareholder of the club, and officially renaming the team's home stadium king power stadium on 5 July of the same year.
Leicester City's record was dismal, and the veteran team founded in 1884 was even at one point in League One, until the 08/09 season when it had just returned to the Championship. The cost of Wei Chai's acquisition of the team is not even as good as the cost of buying a star by the Premier League giants, even compared to the expansion of many Chinese capital in overseas football, this can only be regarded as a "small fight". But unlike vampires such as Kroenke and Levi, Vichai, who is a fan himself, is particularly attentive to the management of the team, and he is eager to succeed, because this is his original intention to acquire this team.
In the 12/13 season, Leicester City had a chance to advance to the Premier League, but in the last 22 seconds of the promotion play-off against Watford, Leicester City's penalty was saved, and the opponent immediately launched a Jedi counterattack, and captain Denny scored a winning goal before the final whistle, locking the total score to 3-2, Leicester City thus became the background of Watford's miracle (although Watford lost to Crystal Palace in the subsequent final, this game is destined to go down in history, the victory and defeat are only in one thought, this is the charm of football).
The Watford Miracle
In the summer of 2013, the bitter Vichai made a series of reforms to the team, including increasing investment in stadium facilities and the team's squad, but most importantly, he successfully converted Leicester City's £103 million debt into a stake in the club, completely eliminating the team's debt and enabling the team to complete the transformation of benign operations.
Under the painstaking management of Vichai, in the 13/14 season, Leicester City was promoted to the Premier League as the Champions League winner. But Vichai is not satisfied, and the always low-key he said in an interview, "We hope to gain a foothold in the Premier League and then strive to challenge the top five, I think we can achieve this goal in 3 years." His remarks seemed like crazy at the time, and even Leicester City fans laughed at it. Who would have thought that this little-known club would ignite an incredible blue miracle in the powerful Premier League arena?
Blue Miracle
In the 14/15 season, Vichai devoted even more enthusiasm to the team, inviting Thai celebrities from all walks of life to See Leicester and preparing a £400 bottle of red wine for his guests. But that season, Leicester City was once considered ironclad relegation – they were ranked first in the Premier League for 140 days, but the team won seven of their last nine games and completed the victory escape.
In the summer of 2015, Vichai took his Leicester City to Thailand to play several exhibition matches, during which time Adam Smith, Tom Hope and James Pearson teamed up to prostitute and videotape, causing great controversy (James Pearson was also the son of the team's coach at the time, Nigel Pearson). In response to this negative incident that damaged the team's image, Vichali made the decision to expel three players and announced the dismissal of head coach Nigel Pearson on July 1 of the same year.
Since then, Vichai has invited the "pot maker" Rajali as the team manager, filling the last piece of the puzzle of leicester City's miracle. Throughout the 15/16 season, Leicester City set off a blue whirlwind in the Premier League, and finally overwhelmed all the giants, lifting the Premier League championship trophy two rounds in advance, which also created the greatest miracle in the history of the Premier League. You know, before the start of the season, Leicester City's Odds of winning the Premier League were as high as 1 to 5,000, and the same odds were offered by bookmakers such as "Kim Kardashian was elected President of the United States by 2020" and "Obama began to play professional cricket after leaving the presidency" - Leicester City's Premier League victory was as ridiculous as they seemed, but in the end it was incredibly achieved.
In the face of great success, Vichai's management philosophy was highly respected for a while. He always believes that "professionals do professional things" and never interferes too much in the affairs of the team, but this "rule by doing nothing" just provides more space for the club's professionals. Vichai gave Rajali and football director Jon Ruskin great trust, allowing the two to build the team's tactical system completely free. The team's reinforcements are handled by Scout Steve Walsh, who has proven himself under Mourinho, but Vichai will also watch thousands of game videos with him, and then compile a list of recruitment options based on the club's financial resources - with their joint efforts, amateur players Vardy, Ligue 2 players Mahrez and Kante, Derrick Water, who was eliminated by the Manchester United youth... These cost-effective "corner scraps" eventually became the cornerstone of the team's championship.
In addition, Vichai's own innate affinity has completely conquered Leicester City fans. He is eager to gain cultural recognition from British fans, and almost every home game invites monks to pray for the team. At the same time, he will also distribute folding fans for free, which alone costs 13,000 pounds per game, which is expensive but in exchange for the love and support of fans - the sound of knocking on folding fans has gradually become a feature of Leicester City's home stadium.
After the miracle, Vichai's personal wealth also began to soar geometrically. Before the 2010 acquisition of Leicester City, Vichai was worth only $200 million, but as the team won the championship, his net worth soared to $2.8 billion, making him Thailand's fourth-richest man. By 2018, his personal wealth had reached $4.9 billion.
Died
In the following seasons, with the recovery of various giants, Leicester City has gradually become a mid-level team, but Vichai's great image in the minds of fans has never changed, and he has become Leicester's city hero.
On 27 October 2018, after Leicester City's 1–1 home draw with West Ham United, Vichai took off from the King Power Stadium in his helicopter as usual, but the plane crashed into the parking lot outside the stadium just a few minutes later due to technical failures and set off a raging fire. Even if the rescue team arrived at the scene as quickly as possible, it could not rewrite the reality that all 5 people, including Vichai, were killed.
Leicester City fans remember Vichai
In the days that followed, thousands of Blue Fox die-hards traveled to The King's Court to pray for the Thai rich man who brought supreme glory to the team. Inside the club, there was also a huge sad mood, from the sports equipment manager to the cleaner, to the Core Stars of the Blue Foxes such as Vardy and Schmeichel, all burst into tears. Rajali, who has left the team, said in an interview with the Italian media, "Vichai can always influence everyone with a positive attitude and words, he can get everyone's love, every time he enters the team's dressing room, Vichai is to motivate the players, he never blames anyone, he has made a huge contribution to Leicester City to win the Premier League title." Leicester City wrote in an official statement, "The unfortunate death of Vichai has deprived the world of a great man." He is a kind and generous man who embodies his philosophy of building a family atmosphere, both in his personal life and in leading the development of the club. ”
As an ordinary fan, the author is also deeply saddened by the departure of Vichai. After all, the Leicester City that won the championship season carried all the fantasies of people's "counterattack", they relied on tenacious defense, simple and direct counterattack in the Premier League, which is a gift from heaven for football, but also an echo of football for Vichai. I'm sure no one will forget Vichai, just as no one will forget that season of infinite passion!