Former Leicester City boss Martin O'Neill says the Foxes' Premier League title success is the greatest achievement since newly promoted Nottingham Forest won the First Division in 1977-78.
On Monday, Leicester bounced back from their relegation battle last season to win the title for the first time in their 132-year history, becoming the first new champions since Forest's shock success under Brian Clough.
O'Neill, who was in charge of Leicester when they won the League Cup in 1997 and 2000, was part of the Forest squad that scraped promotion to top flight in third place in 1976-77 and then finished seven points clear of European champions Liverpool the following season.
He said Claudio Ranieri's achievement with Leicester, who defied odds of 5,000-1, was unlikely to be repeated in his lifetime but suggested that Forest's triumph remained the bigger shock.
The Republic of Ireland boss, 64, told the BBC: "It's the greatest achievement, obviously, of the century, although that's just 16 years old.
"And I think since Nottingham Forest away back in 1977-78, when I was a member of the team that came up from the old second division and won the [top division] at the first time of asking, this is the greatest achievement since then."
He added: "Ranieri deserves all the credit in the world. The players have been simply sensational, the owners have been terrific as well.
"It's been a great story. Everything about it, from way back last year when they just avoided relegation, to this magnificent rise, it has been incredible and so romantic."
Viv Anderson, another member of the Forest squad that won the First Division title, agreed with his former teammate.
"I am biased, but I would say Forest winning the title is better," he said in the Daily Mail.
Clough made only four signings over the course of the title-winning season, and his squad contained many players -- including Anderson and O'Neill -- who had been part of the Forest side that was drifting in the lower reaches of the Second Division upon his arrival in January 1975.
"It was all new to us," Anderson, who went on to win back-to-back European Cups with Forest, added. "We were used to playing Second Division players and then went up to the First Division and played against sides we had only seen on television.
"For Leicester to have come along and done what they've done is an absolute breath of fresh air. It is amazing with all the money involved, easily the most fantastic achievement of the Premier League era, but at least they had a season of playing against these top opponents week in, week out. We never had that opportunity. We had to come up and hit the ground running."