How many BMW i8 cars do you see in the featured photograph? 10? Maybe 15? Nope. There are 19 plug-in hybrid sports cars in this pic, all of them given to Leicester City FC’s players.
This bit of generosity comes courtesy of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the chairman of the Leicester City FC, who bought them all for his hard-working players. The reason for spending at least £1,986,260 (£104,540 x 19) on this eco-friendly fleet? It’s simple: Leicester City FC has won the Premier League.
Lined up outside the King Power Stadium, the cars look amazing wearing the same shade of blue the football club uses to identify itself. This bit of news is a bit baffling, mind you. It’s not because of the numbers. It’s because Vichai had initially promised his players a fleet of Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive vehicles. Eww, I know, right? But anyway, he switched over to BMW i8s.
Another baffling aspect regarding this reward for the players’ hard work is that all but four players got i8s. N’Golo Kante, Joe Dodoo, Andrej Kramaric, and Yohan Benalouane didn’t get i8s because they’ve moved on to other clubs. Yohan Benalouane, for example, is on loan to ACF Fiorentina.
Even though Vichai spent approximately £2 million ($2.6 million at current exchange rates) on these four-wheeled gifts, the guy has a net worth of over 100 times that amount. He’s the fourth richest man in Thailand, you know. Furthermore, the i8s are small gifts compared to the £6.5 million bonus the players will have to split between them after winning the Premier League.
Being a professional footballer certainly has its perks.
19 BMW i8 ready for the players following last season's triumph. What a chairman.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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