Title winning campaigns by non-elite clubs

[Luke1995]

Leicester being the obvious one.

But, very good examples happened in the 2000's and the 90's

Sevilla won the Uefa Cup in 2006-2007

Zenit won the Uefa Cup in 2007-2008

Wolfsburg won the Bundesliga in 2008-2009

Blackburn won the PL in 1994-1995

I find the Zenit example particularly interesting because they had key members of a national team who would go on to shock the world with Russia soon (although Russia didn't end up winning)

Can you think about other great title winning campaigns by non elite clubs and what happened after ? I think in most of these cases the key players were sold without the possibility of building up on it.

 

[Kag]

Liverpool might win the title in 19/20.

 

[Maluco]

Two big Série A ones.

First was Verona in 1985, against stacked teams. Maradona at Napoli, Platini at Juventus, Falcão at Roma, Zico at Udinese etc...

They were in Série B a few years prior and it’s their sole Série A title.

Elkjaer and Briegel probably the two big stars in that team.

Sampdoria also only have one Scudetto win but that story is a bit different. It is still an incredible feat because by 90/91, Série A was approaching it’s very peak, but they had never finished above 4th place in their history.

This was more a story of a team with serious quality though, Pagliuca, Lombardo, Vialli, Mancini, Vierchowod coming together at the right time for a fairytale finish.

 

[Josh 76]

Leeds 1992. They were in the 2nd division a couple of years before they won the first division .

The obvious ones are Brian Clough with Derby and Forest.

 

[dumbo]

Liverpool might win the title in 19/20.

Take it to the Golden Gloves Winning Campaigns by Non-elite Teams thread.

 

[Vidyoyo]

Montpellier won the French league a few years back, Giroud was top scorer IIRC

 

[Spark]

Fergie's Aberdeen. Arguably up there as one of his greatest achievements.

 

[SportingCP96]

Boavista won the title in Portugal in 2001, also had a decent CL campaign after.

Never got close again.

Only Braga in 09/10 came close to dethroning the usual front runners by getting there best ever finish (2nd place) in a season where they were in the title hunt the whole way through and even led for a majority of the season.

They followed up that season by getting to the Europa league final in 2011 (losing) to Porto. While also having 2 CL appearances and almost shocked United at old trafford and beating arsenal in another.

Those 4 years set up Braga as by far the 4th best club in Portugal and they are becoming an ever growing pain in the ass for the big 3. They are now considered a “threat” and games against them are usually close ones now.

 

[2 man midfield]

Deportivo won La Liga in 2000. Wasn't it with the lowest points total ever or something?

 

[Grinner]

What Clough did with Forest in the league was incredible and then he won two European Cups

 

[SportingCP96]

Montpellier won the French league a few years back, Giroud was top scorer IIRC

This was such a random win and it got no love either.

Lille as well in 2011 is a good shout.

 

[MelvinYeo]

This was such a random win and it got no love either.

Lille as well in 2011 is a good shout.

That was really amazing since they beat PSG when they were already rich.

Nantes as well in the beginning of the century, remember us playing them in the CL.

 

[RyRoc]

Leicester being the obvious one.

But, very good examples happened in the 2000's and the 90's

Sevilla won the Uefa Cup in 2006-2007

Zenit won the Uefa Cup in 2007-2008

Wolfsburg won the Bundesliga in 2008-2009

Blackburn won the PL in 1994-1995

I find the Zenit example particularly interesting because they had key members of a national team who would go on to shock the world with Russia soon (although Russia didn't end up winning)

Can you think about other great title winning campaigns by non elite clubs and what happened after ? I think in most of these cases the key players were sold without the possibility of building up on it.

Literally had no idea about this until now, outstanding achievement although I guess Bayern weren't quite the force they were back then even though they did make the Champions League final a year later and this was pre Klopp Dortmund

 

[RyRoc]

Deportivo won La Liga in 2000. Wasn't it with the lowest points total ever or something?

I don't know too much about La Liga but looks like it was far more competitive between 1995 and 2005 with a few different sides winning the league and different teams making the top 4. Kind of ironic as that was really the period were only Arsenal or Man Utd would finish 1st or 2nd in England and then in the last decade that has really changed with only Barca and Real winning the league (Except the year Athleti won it) , compared to Chelsea, City, Leicester, Liverpool (inevitably) and United during 2010-2020

 

[njred]

Liverpool might win the title in 19/20.

Not might but will. Being one of the top two teams in league history throws your little silly dig out the window.
I would however put united in 92/93 as a non elite team. At the time you had 7 leagues but not since 67. You were relegated and sat 11 leagues off the top elite team.

 

[Invictus]

2008-2010 was a curious time in the Eredivisie as AZ Alkmaar and Twente buckled the hegemony of the Big 3 of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord over successive seasons (which has happened only twice since the introduction of the professional league system). Also, those are the only non-Big 3 clubs to secure the league since 1964 when now 4th division club DWS Amsterdam won the title — with the former being crowned champions twice ('81 + '09) and the latter once ('10). Interestingly, United has a connection with both clubs at the time as they were managed by Louis van Gaal and Steve McLaren.

Bursaspor kinda defied the historical odds in 2010 too, considering the dominance of the Turkish Big 3 of Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş (and were also the first non-Istanbul club to win the Süper Lig since Trabzonspor in '84).

Kaiserslautern are also non-elite and their Bundesliga title in 1998 was quite special as they are the only club to win the thing immediately after getting promoted from the the second division...

Any excuse to post Brehme!

 

[riis]

Forest in '78.

Went directly from 5 years in Division 2 (and 10 years before that with only 2 top 10 finishes in the top flight) to winning the league + league cup double in their first season back.

The fact that they won another league cup and two European cups in the following two seasons nails it for me.

 

[SportingCP96]

2008-2010 was a curious time in the Eredivisie as AZ Alkmaar and Twente buckled the hegemony of the Big 3 of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord over successive seasons (which has happened only twice since the introduction of the professional league system). Also, those are the only non-Big 3 clubs to secure the league since 1964 when now 4th division club DWS Amsterdam won the title — with the former being crowned champions twice ('81 + '09) and the latter once ('10). Interestingly, United has a connection with both clubs at the time as they were managed by Louis van Gaal and Steve McLaren.

Bursaspor kinda defied the historical odds in 2010 too, considering the dominance of the Turkish Big 3 of Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş (and were also the first non-Istanbul club to win the Süper Lig since Trabzonspor in '84).

Kaiserslautern are also non-elite and their Bundesliga title in 1998 was quite special as they are the only club to win the thing immediately after getting promoted from the the second division...

Any excuse to post Brehme!

I remember this!

Twente had won the title with Bryan Ruiz being the star and the following season they were top of the table on the final day when they played Ajax away to decide the title (Ajax won 3-1) I also think they were in the cup final that season too! They looked a real threat in holland.

AZ had a great team as well and played some beautiful football with El Hamdoui being the star of the show on that team.

Its a shame Twente were never able to build upon the foundation they have set and the CL money they received.

Also I remember the Bursaspor one because United played them in the CL in 10-11

 

[Rasendori]

Can you think about other great title winning campaigns by non elite clubs

Ipswich were winners of the first division in 1962. A significant achievement considering they were in the third division (South) in 1955 prior to the acquisition of Alf Ramsey. By the beginning of the football calendar year, not a single player of this Ipswich side were capped.

and what happened after ?

Almost like a a foreshadowing of what was to come as they failed to consolidate their standing by finishing in 17th place. As we know, England won the World Cup in 1966 with Alf Ramsey as manager. Ipswich was the team he left, Crawson whose numbers were reminiscent to that of Vardy's exploits in Leicester's winning season would leave the club. Without Alf Ramsey at the helm, Ipswich were relegated in 1964.

Can you think about other great title winning campaigns by non elite clubs

Ipswich's Uefa Cup triumph in 1980/1.
Won 6-0 on aggregate against the Polish side that knocked out Man Utd and Juventus. Especially impressive considering it was difficult at the time to score more than once against Widzew Łódź. Eventually, they would beat AZ Alkmaar .

and what happened after ?

The next season they once again (2nd place) became agonisingly close to winning the domestic title. However, this time a certain Sir Alex Ferguson curtailed their progress as Aberdeen knocked out Ipswich in the first round of the Uefa Cup. Unfortunately for Ipswich, Bobby Robson who had been the manager for 14 years would leave to manage England. Considering this is a United forum, I'm sure we can have some empathy for a club which had low managerial turnover at the time, . As a matter of fact, there are parallels with Moyes being the successor to Sir Alex, and Bobby Ferguson to Bobby Robson. Sir Alex played a role in the malaise of the club that his successor would inherit. Similarly, Robson advocating the construction of the Pioneer Stand had financial implications for his successor. It wasn't a big squad to begin with, as opposed to Villa their competitors at the time. Ferguson couldn't afford to introduce the requisite acquisitions to bolster the squad as they look to consolidate on what was almost a domestic treble. Arnold Mühren's departure in the summer was a blow, as he was part of a midfield with Thijjsen, and Wark. So, from the offset it wouldn't be the same midfield that achieved greatness, and he was very much a key player. Transfer requests would emerge in the subsequent season, Alan Brazil would end up leaving. Ferguson was having to rely on youth graduates like Ian Cranson amongst others. They were deteriorating at an exponential rate. Ipswich, a side that won the Uefa Cup in 80/81 would be relegated in 85-86.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Regarding Wolfsburg's title win in 2009, I'll never forget this goal from Grafite during their 5-1 win over Bayern:

 

[Kag]

Not might but will. Being one of the top two teams in league history throws your little silly dig out the window.
I would however put united in 92/93 as a non elite team. At the time you had 7 leagues but not since 67. You were relegated and sat 11 leagues off the top elite team.

Jesus. I’ve caught a great white.

 

[Spaghetti]

Literally had no idea about this until now, outstanding achievement although I guess Bayern weren't quite the force they were back then even though they did make the Champions League final a year later and this was pre Klopp Dortmund

1. you make it sound like Dortmund were nothing without Klopp
2. It wasn’t pre-Klopp

 

[Lay]

Kaiserslautern won the Bundesliga right after getting promoted

 

[KirkDuyt]

Feyenoord won the Uefa cup in 2002. We had a good team then, but still, it was well past the Dutch' competitions time to shine.

 

[led_scholes]

FC Thun in the Swiss league in 2009-2010. Now, i have neither a clue about this league, apart from 3 teams, nor about the context of this campaign. But it was the first time i ve heard them, and it was the first time they became champions.

 

[harms]

Sevilla won the Uefa Cup in 2006-2007

Zenit won the Uefa Cup in 2007-2008

That's such a weird examples. UEFA Cup exists so that the second-tier clubs like Sevilla and Zenit can get European silverware and that's what they did, there is nothing surprising about their wins there.

Porto or Sampdoria winning the CL is something that I can behind, for example

First was Verona in 1985, against stacked teams. Maradona at Napoli, Platini at Juventus, Falcão at Roma, Zico at Udinese etc...

This is the first one that I thought about. The second one would be Cagliari in 1970. Italian football was on the rise (they've won the 1968 Euros and reached the World Cup final in 1970) and the league was full of stars:
Inter, with a squad that had won 2 European Cups: Facchetti, Suarez, Mazzola, Burgnich etc.
AC Milan, with a squad that had also won 2 European Cups (the last one just a year prior, in 1969): Rivera, Schnellinger, Rosato, Prati etc.
Juve had a slightly less impressive squad, but it was still full of quality: Furino, del Sol, Anastasi, Haller etc.

Yet, a small Cagliari won it — because of Luigi Riva, who basically carried them there single-handedly. They had only got promoted to Serie A in 1964/65.

 

[hasanejaz88]

2008-2010 was a curious time in the Eredivisie as AZ Alkmaar and Twente buckled the hegemony of the Big 3 of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord over successive seasons (which has happened only twice since the introduction of the professional league system). Also, those are the only non-Big 3 clubs to secure the league since 1964 when now 4th division club DWS Amsterdam won the title — with the former being crowned champions twice ('81 + '09) and the latter once ('10). Interestingly, United has a connection with both clubs at the time as they were managed by Louis van Gaal and Steve McLaren.

Bursaspor kinda defied the historical odds in 2010 too, considering the dominance of the Turkish Big 3 of Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş (and were also the first non-Istanbul club to win the Süper Lig since Trabzonspor in '84).

Kaiserslautern are also non-elite and their Bundesliga title in 1998 was quite special as they are the only club to win the thing immediately after getting promoted from the the second division...

Any excuse to post Brehme!

I swear it irks me so much when people talk about Leicester winning as the biggest achievement/surprise in football but leave out Kaiserslautern winning after being promoted. I can't remember the same happening in recent times in any of the big 4 leagues.

Although one point could be that Kaiserslautern would generally be considered a bigger team than Leicester in the local league sense, given that they won the BL at the start of the decade, while Leicester I can't remember winning the first division (maybe they did well before in the past)

 

[1950]

Vojvodina 1965-66: By the early 60s they were already established as the fifth force in Yugoslavia, but this was the first time none of the traditional big four Partizan, Red Star, Hajduk & Dinamo were able to win the league. Hajduk was in a dark period for a couple of years, finishing in the bottom half repeatedly and even getting involved in a match-fixing scandal which resulted in point deductions this season, so it was not hugely surprising that they only finished a lowest-ever 13th. Title-holders Partizan were focused on the European Cup, where they reached the final and only narrowly lost to Real Madrid, ending their league campaign in 11th place. Red Star also had some of their weaker years in this time, finishing 5th. Dinamo fared better in second place, but were some way off Vojvodina in the end.

Other 'also-rans' winning the Yugoslav league were Sarajevo 1966-67, Željezničar 1971-72, Sarajevo 1984–85 & Vojvodina 1988–89.

Obilić 1997-98: One of the more peculiar entries. Essentially, notorious crime boss and paramilitary leader Arkan took over small second tier FK Obilić from Belgrade and with the help of his funding and possibly other more nefarious means turned it into a title-winning club. First and only time the title didn't go to the big two in Serbia.

Zagreb 2001-02: First time a club other than the big two in Croatia was able to win the league, with young Ivica Olić topping the goalscoring charts with 21 goals and securing a transfer to Dinamo after the season. Their title campaign came out of nowhere, as they have not been anywhere near a title challenge since the early 90s, but the appointment of manager Cico Kranjčar turned out to be crucial.

Rijeka 2016-17: Even after finishing second the three seasons prior, breaking Dinamo's streak after 11 consecutive years for their first ever league title was a huge upset. Not long after winning the league, Spezia-owner Gabriele Volpi pulled out as majority stake-holder after funding the club for 4 years.

 

[Lay]

Still irks me Sociedad didn’t win La Liga in the early 00’s

 

[ThinkTank@Cafe]

Forest in '78.

Went directly from 5 years in Division 2 (and 10 years before that with only 2 top 10 finishes in the top flight) to winning the league + league cup double in their first season back.

The fact that they won another league cup and two European cups in the following two seasons nails it for me.

Forest is an indisputable Cinderella prize winner. Amazing story. Unbelievable. Even Leicester achievement is nothing to what happened back in the 1970s. Life is so much better at creating stories than any human genius.

 

[2015]

FC Thun in the Swiss league in 2009-2010. Now, i have neither a clue about this league, apart from 3 teams, nor about the context of this campaign. But it was the first time i ve heard them, and it was the first time they became champions.

FC Basel became Swiss Champions in 2010. Where did you get this wrong Information from and why didn't you check it?

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

I swear it irks me so much when people talk about Leicester winning as the biggest achievement/surprise in football but leave out Kaiserslautern winning after being promoted. I can't remember the same happening in recent times in any of the big 4 leagues.

Although one point could be that Kaiserslautern would generally be considered a bigger team than Leicester in the local league sense, given that they won the BL at the start of the decade, while Leicester I can't remember winning the first division (maybe they did well before in the past)

Kaiserslautern getting promoted in 1997 and then winning the Bundesliga title in 1998 was a great achievement, but I do think that Leicester's 2016 title was still a much bigger surprise.

Didn't Kaiserslautern win the Bundesliga title and a couple of DFB-Pokals earlier in the 90s. Also before their 1996 relegation from the Bundesliga, I think they were a solid top 4 Bundesliga team? I don't have a clue about the events surrounding their 1996 relegation, but surely it was a huge surprise that they were even relegated in the first place?

The last time that Leicester had even finished in the Premier League top 10 before 2016 was in 2000 (Martin O'Neill's last season before he joined Celtic). They spent most of the period in-between out of the Premier League and even a season in the third tier in 2008/2009.

In the previous season, Leicester were bottom of the Premier League and 7 points from safety at the start of April. Also the Premier League had been incredibly non-competitive in terms of title-winners, with only 4 different teams United, Arsenal, Chelsea and City winning it during the previous 20 seasons. So their title win really did come out of nowhere. Quite a few people predicted that they'd be relegated at the start of 2015/2016, and most people thought they'd finish in the bottom 6 or so.

 

[hasanejaz88]

Kaiserslautern getting promoted in 1997 and then winning the Bundesliga title in 1998 was a great achievement, but I do think that Leicester's 2016 title was still a much bigger surprise.

Didn't Kaiserslautern win the Bundesliga title and a couple of DFB-Pokals earlier in the 90s. Also before their 1996 relegation from the Bundesliga, I think they were a solid top 4 Bundesliga team? I don't have a clue about the events surrounding their 1996 relegation, but surely it was a huge surprise that they were even relegated in the first place?

The last time that Leicester had even finished in the Premier League top 10 before 2016 was in 2000 (Martin O'Neill's last season before he joined Celtic). They spent most of the period in-between out of the Premier League and even a season in the third tier in 2008/2009.

In the previous season, Leicester were bottom of the Premier League and 7 points from safety at the start of April. Also the Premier League had been incredibly non-competitive in terms of title-winners, with only 4 different teams United, Arsenal, Chelsea and City winning it during the previous 20 seasons. So their title win really did come out of nowhere. Quite a few people predicted that they'd be relegated at the start of 2015/2016, and most people thought they'd finish in the bottom 6 or so.

Yea that's true, Kaiserslautern have always been a bigger name in Germany than Leicester in England. On second viewing, considering the success of Kaiserslautern in the 90's before relegation, it wouldn't be a bigger acheivement for them to win the title compared to Leicester. Maybe Kaiserslautern winning would be equivalent to someone like Leeds winning in the 00's after they got relegated, a great achievement but not as surprising as Leicester.

 

[Hound Dog]

FC Thun in the Swiss league in 2009-2010. Now, i have neither a clue about this league, apart from 3 teams, nor about the context of this campaign. But it was the first time i ve heard them, and it was the first time they became champions.

They won the second division that season, they were never champions

 

[Josh 76]

Auxerre 1995-96. French Champions.

This was one of the biggest shocks in football history.

According to Thierry Henry, it was bigger than Leicester winning the PL.

 

[Stacks]

Leicester being the obvious one.

But, very good examples happened in the 2000's and the 90's

Sevilla won the Uefa Cup in 2006-2007

Zenit won the Uefa Cup in 2007-2008

Wolfsburg won the Bundesliga in 2008-2009

Blackburn won the PL in 1994-1995

I find the Zenit example particularly interesting because they had key members of a national team who would go on to shock the world with Russia soon (although Russia didn't end up winning)

Can you think about other great title winning campaigns by non elite clubs and what happened after ? I think in most of these cases the key players were sold without the possibility of building up on it.

Europa League is for clubs like Sevilla. its very rarely won by elite clubs.

Chelsea won the title in 2005 and City in 2012

 

[ThinkTank@Cafe]

One of the biggest surprises on our side of Iron wall was Zorya Luhansk in 1972.

Soviet Union was a huge country (300 million pop) with a very competitive league. Imagine 15 Union republics (all independent countries today) fighting for Soviet Union Champion title. Republics elites were crazy about prestige and pumped enormous resources in their clubs.


Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Kiyv rivalry was a reflection of Russia vs Ukraine elites rivalry at the Union level .

Dynamo Minsk, Dynamo Tbilisi, big Moscow clubs were respected at European level. Ararat (Armenia), Kairat (Kazakhstan), Zalgiris (Lithuania) were all tough opponents

The matches were played at huge stadiums (40 to 100 thousand people attendances). In short, football was the only way to realise national pride in the totalitarian state.

I grew up in a town with 350.000 population and attended most of the games of the local club which played in 2nd regional league (League 1 or 2 in England). 10.000 seat stadium was always full. Always.

In 1972, a club from similar sized town wins the Soviet Union Champion title. Imagine the shock.

 

[FootballHQ]

Deportivo won La Liga in 2000. Wasn't it with the lowest points total ever or something?

They were a very good team. Should've won the title a few years before with a few of that squad but missed a penalty in last minute and did well with that squad in champions league.

Big one for me is Kaiserlautern. Didn't they come up to Bundesliga and then win the league title the very next year? 1998 I think. Can't think of a team in major league to do that although Leicester actually came pretty close, won it two years after promotion.

Are a reasonably big club in Germany but fallen on hard times and now in the regional leagues.

 

[Sylar]

Wanna count Monaco in this from a few years ago. They had some quality players, topped PSG, and went to the Semi(?) of the CL.
Most of their side especially midfield and attack went on to some big teams too.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Auxerre 1995-96. French Champions.

This was one of the biggest shocks in football history.

According to Thierry Henry, it was bigger than Leicester winning the PL.

Isn't Auxerre itself a very small city / town with a very low population? A remarkable success story.

Even there though, I don't think that compares to Leicester's 2016 title win in terms of the surprise factor.

Auxerre were a solid top 4 club in Ligue 1 for a few years before their 1996 title win. Also around that time (and for much of its history) Ligue 1 was incredibly open and competitive with 7 different teams winning the title during the 90s. I think 6 different teams won the title in 6 consecutive years from 1994-1999.

Montpellier winning Ligue 1 in 2012 with such a small budget, beating PSG who had been taken over by QSI the previous summer and were already spending big money was a huge surprise. But even there I think that Leicester's title was still the bigger surprise, as Montpellier had finished 5th and qualified for the Europa League a couple of seasons earlier, and in the period between Lyon's domination during the 00s and PSG's domination starting from the next season, again Ligue 1 was very open and competitive. That was in sharp contrast to the Premier League from 1996-2015 which was anything but.