Wow - where to start with this one!
I think the dream of every football fan in England is to see their team lift the FA Cup. For teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal etc. it is expected that they will see this multiple times in their lives. But for a team like Leicester, who have been in 4 previous FA Cup finals and lost all 4 it is a dream that you are so desperate to see come true. The FA Cup is so so special.
So for us to reach the final this year was unbelievable. And then, after not being able to go to a football match since March 2020, to get tickets to attend this momentus occasion was such a privilidge. It was so good to be back in a stadium, to see my team kicking a football around the pitch, to cheer them on, to have a pop at the referee for making a mistake that probably was not a mistake. For a short period of time it felt like life as normal, well, apart from wearing a mask for the whole game!
And then to win the damn thing. My oh my. I was almost in tears at the end. Chelsea are a good team but we won this because we wanted it more, it meant so much more to us than it did to them. And it was more than just winning the FA Cup. We had to win this for our wonderful late Chairman Khun Vichai who sadly passed away in the helicopter tradegy of 2018. He made Leicester City what it is today, and winning the FA Cup was for him. Even thinking about it now I get emotional. To see Kasper drag Top (Vichai's son and our current Chairman) on to the pitch to join in with all of the celebrations was joyous and just perfect. As was the huge banner in the top tier of Wembley showing Vichai looking down over us with the quote: "Our dreams can come true... If we have the courage to persue them". And Leicester City had all the courage in the world.
The game itself wasn't a classic but cup finals rarely are. What a goal to win it though! And Kasper man 2 quite incredible saves at the end. My heart sank when their goal went in, only for those emotions to turn in to pure ecstasy when VAR ruled that there was an offside in the build up. I've always been a fan of VAR...!
Finally, although we only have 6,250 Leicester fans in the stadium it felt and sounded like 30,000. I watched the whole game back on TV again yesterday and I am so proud of how we out sang the Chelsea fans, who to be honest, were quite pathetic.
What a day. What a game. What a moment. What a win!