A Legacy For Khun Vichai | Tribute Documentary

you know, really sums up his character.

Did they have to do it? No.

But that just shows what type of people they are.

It was the fact that they wanted to.

I suppose he had his dreams himself and

he worked hard to achieve them

and that's exactly what he did.

The moment every Leicester City supporter has been looking forward to.

If I could ask the Captain, the Manager, the Vice

Chairman and the Chairman to gather

round the trophy... They were always getting across

that it didn't matter what it was,

that anything was actually possible.

We rebury a King, King Power, and then what happens?

The Football Club win the Premier League!

And it was a great story that brought a huge smile

to many peoples' faces. The day that they came through those gates of Belvoir

Drive was the day our Club changed

massively for the better.

The ethos of Khun Vichai,

the giving nature, the generosity

that pervades the whole Club thanks to his leadership was absolutely incredible.

Khun Vichai should be remembered as one of the favourite sons of Leicester.

You know it was run with a lot of love, a lot of care.

I've never experienced a club so interconnected as Leicester,

a club that was very, very united, a club that's like a family.

It was about the glory.

It was about community.

It was about the fans feeling the pride in their city,

in their club, in their team, and he absolutely brought that in.

His legacy will live on for forever and no one will

ever, ever be able to take that away and rightly so as well.

Fans say the city of Leicester is devastated by the helicopter crash at King Power Stadium.

It is believed the Chairman and owner of the Foxes was among those

on board when it came down in a car park shortly after last night's game.

The helicopter took off about an hour after the final whistle of the game against

West Ham, but minutes later, crashed in the car park outside...

the saddest day in their Club's history as fans came

in their thousands to pay their respects after yesterday's helicopter crash.

Vichai's death really touched a whole footballing community.

When that happened, you could see the sympathy from

all fans from all over the country, even from all

over the world. The flowers that were left behind really shows

how much impact Vichai had

on the whole footballing community.

And it was fantastic

to see and really, really touching to look

back and relive those memories.

Witnessing the event and being so close to the event, right at the beginning, I didn't really process it.

All this time has passed and

you realise the impact all over the world

and the reason for that was his personality.

I've never seen a club owner

loved and adored the way he has been.

But how many people came out from other clubs

and said how much they wished that he owned their football club?

I think the tragedy of his death and the manner

of it actually brought the city together

afresh. I went

to visit at the stadium

on a number of occasions, watching people

lay the flowers and they were there to remember him,

but actually what I was witnessing was a huge sense of compassion

been evoked in one another,

which wasn't just about his death, but was about other

things in these people's lives, the sense of actually holding one another,

and I think that's part of the legacy for the future

and it's a quite a tall order to live out of that legacy.

But it's inspiration for the future. And it wasn't simply

here, the grief that was felt across the game...

Leicester had lost one of their own, but I think

you got the impression that football had lost one of their own.

He loved the sport.

He loved the possibility of sport.

He loved the camaraderie, he loved

the joy that sport and football in particular

could bring. Royalty turned up.

I think Kate and Will left a very moving message and paid their respects.

Obviously William is a football fan, but also

he understood that the country had lost someone very, very special.

Catherine and I wanted to visit Leicester

to pay tribute to a man that we knew,

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha,

and those who died alongside him in October.

We knew Vichai as a man who cared deeply

about his family and also his community.

He, of course, was a man of wealth,

but that wealth did not leave him disconnected from those around him.

He believed in giving back. Catherine and

I also wanted to come to Leicester because of what the people of

this city and fans of this Club have shown us all over the last few weeks.

You were paying tribute to Vichai, Kaveporn, Nusara,

Izabela and a man I had the privilege to fly with in the past, Eric Swaffer.

And when the man that led this Club to victory died

so tragically, the people of this city revealed

with their outpouring of admiration that they, too, shared

much of the character that was so central to who Vichai was.

In a time when our football clubs have become huge global enterprises,

you came out to thank Vichai for making the fans

the true owners of this Club. Right before the game,

we made the decision that we weren't just going to be the starting XI.

We were going to be everybody,

so the whole team behind the team, all the staff, all the substitutes,

everyone was going to be in the centre circle.

I couldn't really contain my emotions at the time.

It was such a profound moment.

But I remember thinking, looking up at one point, looking at them,

looking at us, thinking they can't win.

There's nothing they can do today to beat us.

Sometimes in this job, you have to cover things and you're not really just covering them

As a journalist, you can't be a dispassionate observer

because you get to know the players and the supporters

and the management and everyone around this great Club.

Going to Cardiff and just seeing the fans there,

they were heartbroken.

They'd lost a member of their family.

The Leicester City song...

this great man who 'came from Thailand, and now he's one of our own'...

that is the greatest compliment a football fan can pay to someone who comes in from the outside.

'You're now one of our own', because everyone realised what

an amazing man Khun Vichai was

and what an amazing owner, and then the scenes here...

for the Burnley game, again,

it was just incredibly powerful.

The grief, but also that pride

that Khun Vichai had been here...

their desire to show their support

and their love for Top and his family

and also their huge desire

for Top to stay on, to continue his father's legacy...

We still feel it to this day.

We always,

around the time of his death, go for a memorial service

and just remember the good times because he was the type of guy that always

had a smile on his face, he wanted people to be happy,

and wanted to give back.

They're the key memories we have of him.

We do things professionally and with pride and dignity,

that was the same back then, and

I feel like since the tragedy,

that's continued to happen. When the tragedy happened,

everything was done right at the time, as tough as

it was and as tough as that period of life was,

especially at this Football Club.

So the garden, people have got that place where they can go and show their respect.

I think that's a lot to do with the culture that he created

and the things he put in place here, Personally, he was

everything. Obviously when I came, he was always

around the lads, always at the training ground, wanting

to be involved as much as he can.

I don't think you get that a lot

with any chairman,

if I'm honest. That's the main thing with obviously the Club as well,

that's how he wants it to be.

He doesn't want you to look at him as: 'Oh yes, the owner's here'.

He wants you to have chats with him.

He wants every single person involved

when he's coming in, and that's not just the players.

That's everyone from top to bottom at the Club.

The Boss came to Belvoir Drive, or on matchdays, and we would

always have a hug instead of a shake of the hand, that's what it was.

You could hug the Chairman!

I never did that before and

that's the way it was. We had a great rapport.

It was good, along now with his son Top doing that as well.

He's just taking his father's role.

The likes of me,

Kasper [Schmeichel], Vards (Jamie Vardy),

Riyad [Mahrez] were there from the beginning and for a long, long time,

so we knew him very, very well.

But even the new guys, he would make a big effort to

make them feel welcome,

get them to interact, buy into the way, the culture,

of Leicester, which served us so well.

When I signed for the Club, he said we'd

be in the Champions League within six years and we're in the Championship at this time.

And then I was kind of thinking: 'Yes, okay.'

I've heard this kind of thing before,

very ambitious, all this kind of stuff,

but he kind of looked at me and repeated it and said: 'No,

we are going to be in the Champions League within six years'.

I've got to be honest with you,

when I signed for the Football Club, that wasn't my

first thought, I'll be honest with you there.

As I got to know people in the Club and got

to know Vichai himself and the players

that we had... yes, probably I still didn't think it was realistic,

but I didn't think it was a million miles off.

I certainly didn't think it was as close

as what it

was

going to

be.

Marc Albrighton scores now in the scorching sun on the opening day! Leicester have been hot, hot, hot!

He looked at life thinking that anything was possible.

I know that they call him the Possible Man.

I feel like that's the way he lived, in which nothing

was impossible. The ball in behind Darmian... Vardy! It's 11, it's heaven for Jamie Vardy!

People look at the players on the pitch and a lot gets made of the players on the pitch that year,

but without him,

not a single bit of that would have been achieved. The ball through towards Mahrez...

he's got clear of Otamendi...

Riyad Mahrez!

Wow, well... where is this going?!

They were very much people that put

something inside of you that made you want to

just go that extra yard for them. Morgan going in...

and Wes Morgan heads it in!

Leicester hit back like champions!

I didn't just want to do it for myself.

I didn't just want to do it for my family.

I didn't

just want to do it for my friends, the Football Club,

I wanted to do it for people like Khun Vichai, who gave me that platform

and I felt like I owed something to him.

When people give you that feeling, it's a whole lot easier to do.

I had a good playing career at the highest

level at the time, which was the old First Division, now the Premier League, of course.

But for me, the day that really

blew me away was the day I was asked to walk

out with the Premier League trophy.

I couldn't...

I was shaking.

I'm shaking now, just thinking about that day, a special day.

I'm representing the Club that I love

and probably having the highest accolade

that I can do as a non-player,

to walk out with the Premier League

trophy, which by all accounts, in all my time around the place,

I would never think that we would do it, honestly, and I don't think half the world did,

but we did it.

I can't believe I got to have done

that for your Football Club...

I don't want to get too emotional...

I am.

But it was fantastic and I walked past the Boss and Top

and I looked back and, for that second, I thought it shouldn't be me doing this...

It should be them because they were

the people that really turned this Club around.

They have blown their rivals away.

They have blown us all away,

in truth... Premier League champions, 2016...

the amazing Leicester City!

You saw the lap of honour after we lifted the trophy... Khun Vichai and

Top had the trophy themselves and the amount of admiration they were getting off the fans as well,

it just shows that, like I said, everyone bought into it and everyone can see exactly what

they were doing on a personal level to help the Club.

I remember when we won the league

and he first flew into the training ground and

you could see the emotion on his face, how

much it meant to him. His eyes were almost

tearing up, and I think one of his biggest goals and dreams was

for Leicester to, beyond all our imaginations, to win the league.

And it's all right saying that, but for us to do it

and to see how much it meant to him on his face,

that's one thing that really sticks

in my mind. That first time seeing

him after it was confirmed [we were] champions and the joy

he had on his face, you can tell it really, really meant so much to him.

He had a clear idea of how he wanted to do things and

how he wanted to run the Football Club. To win the Premier League was, I think, was something

he was incredibly proud of. The respect

and adulation he received in Thailand... and

for him, I think the pride was bringing

the trophy home to Thailand, for him to

to kind of show the country that a Thai-owned

team could win the Premier League, to give inspiration to them...

I think that was probably what meant more to him than anything.

It would have meant everything to him.

It really will have, the fact that

on one hand, he said what he wanted and it happened,

but then obviously to get to play

in the Champions League and stuff that the Club have not done...

And again Khun Vichai and the family travelling

to every single game

to make sure that they could watch and be in

around the lads during the experience just made it even better.

What Khun Vichai has also done is just giving these amazing memories of Europe.

I went on a lot of the trips and Bruges,

the game, the night out... there was Seville, Madrid...

There was all these great, great memories. Copenhagen as well.

First they're great cities to go to, but Khun Vichai, because of

the investment in the team, because of the title,

just to actually go and do that, to have those memories for life...

I can remember we we're in a bar in Seville after the game -

unlike a journalist to be in a bar in Seville - and just talking

about memories and just seeing the smiles on all the fans' faces and how much that meant.

Getting to the Champions League was a big deal for a club like

Leicester and having never been in the Champions League and to have the run that we did,

there was a feeling that we could actually go

and win this. He was there with us for the games.

He was there for the training sessions the day before, on the pitch,

experiencing these things, because they're massive experiences.

For me, it's the only time in my career I ever played in the Champions League.

It is just something special and

I knew it was something special to him as well, because

the Champions League is the stage that everyone sees

and here was a club

that was owned by a man from Thailand who

went and did the impossible, won the Premier League, and now

going and mixing it with the best in the world in the Champions League.

Kasper Schmeichel... he saved the penalty from Joaquin Correa in the first leg,

but it is Steven Nzonzi who comes up... Nzonzi...

it's saved again by

Schmeichel! That is

massive from Kasper Schmeichel!

Vardy says: 'Run to the corner flag!'

There is the full-time whistle! Leicester

City write another remarkable chapter!

He wanted to treat everyone exactly the same.

It didn't matter who you were.

He didn't even have to know people,

he was giving donations to local hospitals,

trying to make the community even better than what it is.

That was just him as a person,

he loved to give and seeing that it made a difference.

So after the Foxes Foundation

and the tragedy, it became

the VS Foundation, which raised

unlimited amounts around the county and the city for various charities.

I have been around for about 30-odd years,

I think, doing the runs,

and then the Boss came in and just put it on a different level for me.

There was a big change.

I remember starting the runs off, the Boss and

then Top would do a lap or a couple of laps as well.

Just little things like that made a difference.

You can see his mark all over the place, the Club's

mark, but basically it's what the Boss contributed to as well.

He's put his stamp on this city.

It will always be there forever.

It's a great tribute to him.

When we started Heartwize in 2014, we

were looking at ways of gaining a bit of recognition, a bit of publicity,

and one of the targets was the major sports clubs

and Leicester City Football Club were incredibly generous.

The Chief Executive, Susan Whelan, and the Chairman were very supportive

over the coming years. We had supplied

defibrillators in all the schools, raised a training

force of volunteers, and we were going out to schools,

as we are today, to deliver training to the younger generation.

He made an impact in the city

that I think is widely recognised.

I found myself being responsible for the reburial of Richard III, and

I had to raise a large sum

of money in a very short period of time, and

that money was for the reburial and for all the events around Richard III.

Khun Vichai was one of the people who stepped up to the mark.

We asked and he responded.

It was as simple as that, really.

And so it's a six-figure sum which helped us to do what we needed to do

and without people like him, Richard III would not have been buried with dignity and honour.

The reburial of a medieval King isn't just a moment in time.

It's about changing a whole story for generations to come.

Everybody from now on will associate very

clearly Richard III and Leicester and Khun Vichai's

response and contribution to that

means that he's not only changed a moment

in history, but actually

has changed things forever in this place.

Obviously, Vichai, a Buddhist, giving money to a Christian church

but in the spirit of huge generosity and recognising

the Cathedral's role in this

local society and its role

in providing a place of sanctuary for so

many people from all over the world,

embodying what Leicester does really well,

being a city for all nations.

In 2012, we requested

help to build a new teenage cancer

unit, Our Space, and that was very forthcoming.

Subsequently, children's outpatients...

and then the absolutely incredible £2M donation

after the historic Premier League win.

The £2M was earmarked to build a brand new

intensive care unit where we look after critically ill children

and that is the bedrock and the foundation of any children's hospital.

With this incredibly deep and profound partnership,

we're very confident, with the ongoing support of Leicester City Football Club,

thanks to Khun Vichai's vision, we will deliver

a children's hospital fit for the 21st century.

This room we're sitting in is a postnatal room

sadly for a family whose baby has died.

Initially, when we started the appeal, I was overwhelmed.

I thought we'll never manage,

we'll never do it.

And so when money came in, it was just a relief

to know that people out there were rooting for us and were going to support us.

I struggle to remember what it was like.

I just know it was bad. We had women delivering

a stillborn baby that obviously doesn't cry in a very sad time,

in the middle of a crazy busy delivery suite...

just wrong, just wrong on every level.

Those times were really hard.

He was a gentleman of sport, wasn't he?

But he remembered women of Leicester needed something

and that just means everything to us.

And do you know what one of the midwives said to me after we had these rooms made?

She said: 'I'm not embarrassed anymore - and

now I'm very proud what we can offer, even someone in a very sad time'.

I think he's probably the most generous man I've ever come across.

When I say generous, it is

generous with his time and what he invested in people.

He loved nothing more than to see people flourishing

and you could always look over to where

he was sitting and he'd have a big smile on his face and

you could see that it gave

him something, definitely, to see other people enjoying themselves.

His passion, his belief, his crucial

investment into the Club, not just

financially, but personal time, effort...

all of that has assured a place for Leicester City

and Leicester City Football Club in history books.

So I think Khun Vichai

is actually a true son of Leicester.

Our Football Club went from a football club

into an institution where so

many different charities benefitted from

the Boss and the Foundation and everything.

You can't overemphasise it,

the change in our Football Club when the family came. If you come through

the car park on a matchday and stuff like that,

and there was a mum and dad there with a little kid,

he didn't breeze by and get into the directors' or in his room,

he'd stop and have pictures taken and be there.

That was the person he was. I can't emphasise [enough].

It was a very, very sad day for our Football Club when

the Boss left us. The generosity for the local hospital

here, I think he gave them £2M... the University, £1M as well.

That is just huge money.

But also I think the legacy is in another way which people haven't realised.

When the monks came here, I just thought that was,

in a world where people sort of question religions

and faiths, to actually just to see that

and see that as part of someone's culture and, for it to become accepted and respected,

I think that was quite a huge moment.

I think it's the little things.

When it'll be an occasion, like his birthday, and everyone gets a free pie and a free beer,

he's always trying to find ways to give

back to the fans, give back to the community, to the players, but to everyone.

You don't have to do that.

But that's

his nature

and that's his generosity.

Well, you can see, right now, we're sat in a multi-million

pound training complex, which is all down to him and his vision.

It was one of his dreams to build this training facility.

He wanted the best facility in the world

and he got it. Like with everything else, he made it happen.

It just oozes class.

It oozes everything that he was about.

He wanted the best of the best.

You walk through the doors and it kind of takes your breath away, the first time.

You're like: 'Wow, this is incredible.

This is for real.'

For Leicester City,

going from Belvoir Drive

to Seagrave... it is just extraordinary,

the gear change and, in a way, reflected what

Leicester had become under Khun Vichai and Khun Top.

What is wonderful is when you arrive at Seagrave, you see all these kids playing.

You see all the Academy kids coming through and then you go on and you go

into the First Team area and you see the facilities there. At a time when we worry

about kids' mental health, their physical health, post-COVID, to have that,

to have the lungs, that space,

for kids to run around and develop young

[Kiernan] Dewsbury-Halls of the future potentially coming through there,

but also what that means to the community is just as important a legacy

from Khun Vichai as the title.

You walk around this place, this is all him.

It was me nine years ago.

He's giving other players platforms to achieve anything they want

basically. The young players coming in now have got

an incredible opportunity and it's down to him building

this special training ground, putting the platform in place.

I think obviously, with the FA Cup win as well,

that was obviously huge and, for Khun Top, it was very special.

It was special for all of us.

I think for Khun Top, it was extra special.

He felt like his

father was there that day and I felt like

he'll feel proud in the fact that he feels like he's done that for his dad

and that's a special moment.

I think his legacy will live on forever

and Leicester City will always be known as his club, especially this period now...

it will always be known as his club.

I can remember walking up Wembley Way and bumping into a couple

of fans and they introduced me to their kids. The

parents were speechless that they were there

on Wembley Way, heading into

the FA Cup, which Youri Tielemans then went and won...

Kasper Schmeichel made that great save... and

again Khun Vichai

was behind that, and that is a legacy

that just changes and fills so many lives

even though he's gone.

History makers! One hundred and thirty seven

years in the making!

Leicester City have finally won the FA Cup!

Obviously, with COVID, it was only half full, the stadium, so

the top of the stands were were filled

with banners and one of them was a massive picture of Khun Vichai

looking down on the pitch and there was, again,

just this feeling that they're not going to be able to beat us.

It was a big deal to go and win the FA Cup.

I knew it was something that Khun Vichai had talked about, had wanted.

The Club, as a whole, had never won the FA Cup

and it was in typical Leicester fashion...

our mentality was: 'Well, why not us?'

For him to take over like he has done,

it shows that

Khun Vichai probably prepared

Top to eventually take over anyway.

It's as if it's been instilled in him since

obviously they were

little and he's carried it on.

He's been exactly the same.

We've seen him when he comes to the games, he's always talking to the fans,

it doesn't matter, like I say, who you are, you get the same respect from them.

He's got a lot of similar traits, Khun Top,

to his father, whether that be the generosity

the having time for people, being easy to speak

to, being easy to get along with, feel comfortable around,

he's raised him into giving him those skills as a person.

I think everybody that meets him will say the same and they go a long way, those traits.

Some of the boys have left now, but we

still come back and we still see what's happening, and we always try to catch up when we can.

He is always talking about the next thing that's going to happen, which

is great to hear, and it's fantastic to see how he's followed in his footsteps.

It's really pleasing to see him continue the good work of what they do.

In the years where I've grown

from a young boy to a grown man, I feel like he set

the platform and created a platform

for me to be able to do that and achieve my dreams,

deal with tough times, everything was in place to be able

to deal with these things, the good and the bad.

He was so involved with the team, it made you really feel like family.

If you win the next three games, maybe a night out,

or a treat somewhere, and I think he loved that

back and forth banter. Us

trying to negotiate with him, him negotiating back with us...

I think that brought so much to the team, and he

enjoyed it. With everything that they've done for the Club, the investment

and obviously the success that we have had,

I think every fan, there's only one thing they can do, and that's absolutely respect it.

The amount that they actually did to try and make a difference,

but it actually did make a difference, is the main thing,

and you cannot fault them one bit.

The word about Leicester is always fearless.

His legacy is that he made the impossible possible.

To bring a club like Leicester from the Championship to the heights

that it reached, to the infrastructure

and the future that the Club is in for,

that's all down to him.

That's his legacy.

Leicester has been through hell and back many times.

I say 'we' because it is, for me, still 'we'.

We do things differently there. Yes, we fall,

but we always rise again.

I think that will be his legacy.

What Khun Vichai's legacy means to me

and our Football Club, you only have to see

everything was first class.

Everything that he did, Khun Vichai,

it's never been done before, and it probably won't be done again.

What he meant to the Club and the community...

onwards and upwards and the family stays with it.

He's a massive miss,

we all know that. You can hear our crowd sing

every matchday and I look at Top in front of me,

and I know he's so proud that our fans

still and always will acknowledge his father

for setting the standards that he has at our Football Club at Leicester

City Football Club and Top is carrying it on.

But it relates right back to the day

that Khun Vichai joined our Football Club.

Khun Vichai's

legacy is about dreams and it's about the realisation of dreams.

And it's about financial investment, yes,

in those dreams,

but mainly it's about emotional investment.

It's supporting, telling Jamie Vardy:

'Yes, you can go and do that'. Telling Kasper Schmeichel:

'You can be a great goalkeeper'.

Just spreading belief, spreading love and making supporters' dreams [come true]

and that is Khun Vichai's greatest legacy.

And if I talk to supporters of other clubs

when Khun Vichai was alive and what he was doing

with just making these dreams come true,

all those supporters said: 'I wish our owner was like that'.