Leicester City winning the English Premier League (EPL) in the 2015-16 season remains one of the greatest achievements in modern sport.
After heroically surviving a relegation battle in the previous season, with new coach Claudio Ranieri, these football underdogs – a team of misfits, outsiders, and rejects – played out of their skins throughout the entire season.
Led in attack by striker Jamie Vardy, marshalled in defence by captain Wes Morgan, and anchored by goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, the Foxes achieved a feat that bookmakers had priced at odds of 5000-1.
Many newspaper columns and books have been written about this miraculous sporting achievement. Yet very little has been mentioned about the backup goalkeeper for Leicester, the Australian veteran, Mark Schwarzer, who didn’t play a single EPL match all season.
Remarkably, the 43-year-old Schwarzer had won the EPL in the previous season, with Chelsea, also as a back-up goalkeeper, without playing a single EPL match for them. He is the first goalkeeper in history to win back-to-back titles with two different clubs without playing a match.
Not surprisingly, some commentators have claimed, tongue-in-cheek, that Schwarzer was the lucky charm for both Chelsea and Leicester.
Is there any truth to this claim? Across history, culture and myth, the “lucky charm” idea persists.
Scholars have observed that in various European royal courts from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, people with unusual physical features or minor abnormalities – including hunchbacks, dwarfs, conjoined twins – were regarded as “lucky charms”, and they often enjoyed unique access and influence within the palace walls.
In some cultures, dwarfs, for example, were believed to possess spiritual significance and, like those in the royal courts, bring good luck.
Consider Semar, of Javanese mythology and wayang shadow theatre performances. In human form, Semar appears as a grotesquely fat dwarf, with an enormous potbelly and huge backside. Yet spiritually, he is one of the most powerful gods of the Javanese pantheon and is regarded as the dhanyang, or guardian spirit of the island of Java. He is also a tireless champion of the common people and, with wit and folksy wisdom, quietly advises and mentors gods and human alike.
Echoing Semar’s humble form and immense power, Schwarzer’s footballing heroics, across various stages, have been described as immense.
Schwarzer’s seemingly god-like goalkeeping abilities had long been on display for the Australian national team, most memorably in 2005, when his two ice-cold penalty saves in a World Cup qualifying playoff against Uruguay sent Australia to the 2006 World Cup finals, ending a 32-year absence.
At Leicester City, Schwarzer’s presence, in addition to its talismanic element, was of deep practical value. He played a key role in Leicester’s fight against relegation when he joined them midway through the 2014-15 season, playing six matches to help them avoid the drop. In the title winning season, he played in several non-EPL cup matches, giving Schmeichel some welcome respite.
Like Semar, at Leicester, Schwarzer operated at the margins. Perhaps his greatest value was as a mentor. Respected by the younger goalkeepers in the squad, he brought experience and guidance, and understood exactly what was required to win a title.
Never underestimate the value of a lucky charm.
– Marshall & Tristan, Canberra, May 2016 / Brisbane, April 2026