'Doing A Leicester'

When football impacts on language...

Leicester City’s success has had such a powerful impact that it’s inspired the use of a new verb in the English language.  To ‘do a Leicester’…

The English Dictionary, Montgomery-Smythe Publishing Associates 2017 Edition:

Leicester
verb
1. To ‘do a Leicester’.  To enter a competition or contest as an underdog thought to have little or no chance of winning, and yet achieve unexpected or astonishing success.
Example: ‘I hope we can do a Leicester next season.’  Antonym: To ‘do a Chelsea’.
2. To make an impossible dream come true.

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Here are a few examples…

Sporting headlines:

“Former Huddersfield Town man out to ‘do a Leicester’.”

“James McCarthy urges Scotland to ‘do a Leicester’.”