Myalby tells the latest heartwarming underdog story in European football, defying all odds to win the Swedish league title.
team playing in fishing village Mjarby, a city of around 800 people on the Baltic Sea, would not have been a threat to Sweden’s traditional big clubs – especially nearby Malmö, which boasts a record 24 Allsvenskan titles.
However, they have joined the list of teams unlikely to win a league title in Europe in recent years, continuing to give hope to smaller teams. Here are some of them:
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Leicester (2016)
There’s only one place to start, as it’s probably the greatest fairy tale in football history.
A season after narrowly surviving relegation from the Premier League, Leicester surprised a bunch of Europe’s best and richest clubs with pre-season odds of 5,000 to 1. win the english title first time.
Jamie Vardy. N’Golo Kante. Riyad Mahrez. The list of Leicester’s heroes is long, but the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal were unable to stop the mid-English upstart, managed by the incomparable Italian Claudio Ranieri.
Boavista (2001)
Since 1946, only one team has broken into the annual three-way title battle between Portugal’s biggest teams: Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon.
That was Boavista, who won their first and only league title in their 122-year history in 2001 under coach Jaime Pacheco.
Boavista won the title by one game, losing only three of their 34 matches. Only second-placed Porto came within 15 points of the unlikely champions, but the Big Three have not allowed that to happen since then.
Kaiserslautern (1998)
The only team to win the Bundesliga in the season after promotion was Kaiserslautern, blinding the two giants of German football, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, to become the most unfathomable champions.
It all started with a 1-0 win against Bayern in the opening game, and Kaiserslautern, with a whole team of hard-working players, never looked back.
The mastermind behind the title win was its coach, Otto Rehhagel. He performed another miracle six years later, leading Greece to European Championship glory.
Hellas Verona (1985)
Italy’s most unexpected league champion was Hellas Verona. Hellas Verona was an unfashionable club from northern Italy that won the Serie A title, defeating the likes of that year’s European champions Juventus, Roma, who had reached the European Cup finals the previous year, and Diego Maradona’s Napoli.
Verona, newly promoted in 1982, won the league by four points under coach Osvaldo Bagnoli.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of this campaign was Danish striker Preben Elkjær’s stunning goal against Juventus, despite his boot falling off during an attack. It remains in the legends of Verona.
Montpellier (2012)
Qatar’s investment in Paris Saint-Germain during the 2011-12 season would be a game-changer for French football, but it was too late to stop Montpellier from completing an incredible charge towards the title.
The small club from the south of France completed a fantastic season, with star striker Olivier Giroud scoring a league-tying 21 goals and helping to secure a move to Arsenal that summer, as they overcame PSG and Lille on the final day to win the championship by three points.
With a roll call of superstars, PSG have effectively dominated Ligue 1 ever since. In that sense, Montpellier’s title win was perfect timing.
Nottingham Forest (1978)
Before Leicester, there was Nottingham Forest.
Led by coach Brian Clough, who would go on to win the European Cup in 1979 and 1980, they embarked on a miraculous journey to win the English league title in 1978, defeating mighty Liverpool by seven points. A year ago, they had just secured promotion after finishing third in the second division.
It was all orchestrated by charismatic manager Brian Clough, who had already beaten the odds against Derby to win the English league title in 1972. This time he did it again with Forest, winning the League Cup that season, beating Liverpool in the final after a rematch.
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