Rory McIlroy and international captain Steven Davis have called for Northern Ireland to make it the year of the underdog and emulate the success of Leicester City at this summer's European Championships.

Captain Davis took to twitter to congratulate Leicester on their "well deserved" league win on Monday night.

The fantastic Foxes became the 'People's Champions' when nearest rivals Spurs could only draw at Chelsea making the title a certainty for the King Power Stadium.

Claudio Ranieri's side's success was all the more unlikely given that they narrowly avoided relegation last season and were considered more-likely candidates for the drop this term than finishing on top of the pile this May.

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Northern Ireland, for their part, had their own fairytale qualification campaign for the European Championship finals by topping their qualification group.

They were the first team from pot five, of six, in a qualification draw to win a group.

Michael O'Neill's men face world champions Germany, Ukraine and Poland at the finals and - once again - it will be a big ask for the team to make it out of Group C and into the knock-out phase of the competition.

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But Davis - and the Green and White Army - will be hoping to emulate Leicester City and take the national team as far as they can.

While McIlroy pointed out that Northern Ireland were "only" 500-1 to win the championships compared to Leicester's 5000-1 starting odds last August.

Northern Ireland only 500/1 to win Euro 2016... If Leicester can do it.... pic.twitter.com/IQN3C72Vtt — Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) May 2, 2016

Incredible story, massive congratulations to @LCFC . Fully deserve to be champions. Can @OfficialIrishFA make it the year of the underdog — Steven Davis (@StevenDavis8) May 2, 2016

Belfast Telegraph