I settled on this research question because of the research that I did for my ILP's. I always knew that I wanted to write about Leicester City and narrowed it down after doing more research about their recent emergence and more specifically their star player Jamie Vardy. I discovered Vardy's background story, how he played for sub division youth programs and was cut from numerous teams before finally landing at Leicester in the spring of 2012. This proves that you do not have to go through the big name club's youth programs to get recognized in the world of soccer, like Manchester United and FC Barcelona that have monopolized the industry. Bigger clubs like that have established youth programs and are always near the top of the league table, so there is a correlation between the two. That is why Leicester's success is so impressive because they don't have a strong youth program and their best player rose up through a bunch of no name programs. It is giving other clubs around the world hope that they can produce star potential through their own youth academies and make their clubs more competitive and well known. For my third ILP I researched more in depth about soccer youth programs in the U.S. and the willingness for citizens to help fund them. Since the last World Cup in 2014 and the rise of Jamie Vardy in 2015 the number of people willing to pay more taxes to fund youth soccer programs in the United States has increased. If the U.S. youth programs receive more money they can start producing more talent and ideally make the MLS teams more competitive and make soccer more prevalent in the U.S.

My personal interest in this topic is lies in the fact that I have been playing soccer since I was two years old and have been following it for majority of my life, so to see Jamie Vardy's amazing success after his long journey to the Premier League and the possibility of the MLS becoming more competitive really intrigues me. It also makes me a stakeholder because I am a fan of the game and the MLS expanding affects my viewing of it. I am also a stake holder because I pay taxes in this country and the money to fund the youth programs will come from taxes which affects me directly. 

Although I chose this topic because I am very interested in it, I am not very biased towards my argument. I understand both sides of the argument because it is theoretical that the MLS will become a more competitive league in the near future and I know that nothing is for certain in the future. It is also very opinionative to say that Leicester is changing an entire sport but I have facts and sources to support that. In an effort to completely avoid bias in my writing and research I will show both sides of the argument. For example, I will talk about how although less recognizable clubs, like Leicester City, are developing better youth programs it is undeniable that the already established clubs still produce the best talent and will continue to for the foreseeable future because developing a youth program is a process and takes time. I hope to discover more information regarding Leicester's youth program and more about youth programs in the United States through my research because both will help my argument and allow me to write more and fill the quota of 8 pages.

   I hope that after reading my argument on how Leicester City is changing the game of soccer, people will have a better understanding of how impressive their success is and be more inclined to help fund local youth soccer academies. I believe that I can effectively write an 8-10 page paper about this topic but I will most likely have to change my research question. Right now it is a little too broad and ambitious to claim that Leicester City is completely changing the game of soccer, I need to condense and narrow down the research question. On the spectrum of scope, controversy, and complexity I feel that it does well in all of them except controversy. Claiming something like this could potentially cause too much controversy because someone can have a different opinion and completely disagree with it. It does well with complexity and scope though; it is complex because I will go into further detail about the financial limitations and expectations, and the scope is that the game is changing and new clubs are becoming more prevalent. I am probably going to change it to talk more about youth programs and their significance in this day and age. With the three sources that I have already accumulated I do not believe that I have enough information to fully support this argument, however with more research it is likely that I will be able to support this claim in the full 8-10 pages required for this research paper 

Most of the sources that I have used thus far are about Leicester City's amazing success in the Premier League this season and how they are doing it on a serious budget compared to other contenders. Two of the sources disagreed with each other on the topic of Jamie Vardy. One claimed that he is the reason Leicester has been so successful while the other one said that it is not just Vardy but rather all of his teammates are responsible for the success of the team. It is obviously a team game and no single player can be the sole reason for success but both sources are in agreement that he is a very integral reason as to why they are on top of the Premier League right now, 18 months after being promoted. Two sources also agreed with the fact that it is amazing how much less money Leicester is paying for players when they are getting better results than those teams paying 50 million euros for one player. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez who are the highest scoring duo in the league are making a combined 1.4 million euros this season which both sources agreed is unbelievable. 
