Bayer Leverkusen clinched their first-ever German league title last Sunday, defeating their visitors Werder Bremen by 5 goals to nil at the Bayer Arena, echoing similar tales of success once deemed impossible. The heroes were obscure teams whose stories football fans have cherished for decades.
The match reached its climax in the 83rd minute when Leverkusen's fans, already leading by three goals, stormed the field.
Unable to wait for another 7 minutes of added time, the fans witnessed Florian Wirtz scoring the fourth goal.
Xabi Alonso's coaching miracle is not the first of its kind. Stories of extraordinary champions are not always fiction but occasionally grant us glimpses of reality on the football pitch. In the following lines, we'll highlight some of those stories.
Success Stories?
Throughout history, there have been numerous extraordinary success stories in the Bundesliga, such as Stuttgart's achievement in 2007, Wolfsburg in 2009, or Werder Bremen in 2004. But in reality, the most surprising title in the championship's history came before all of them, led by a man accustomed to making miracles.
Six years before making history with Greece, leading them to win the UEFA Euro 2004 title, the veteran German coach Otto Rehhagel accomplished another equally challenging miracle. He won the Bundesliga title with newly promoted Kaiserslautern, becoming the first and only German team so far to achieve the title in its first season after promotion.
Rehhagel succeeded in promoting the relegated team to the second division for the first time in its history, to the Bundesliga in their first attempt. With some reinforcements in his second year, Rehhagel started the 1997-1998 season with an excellent start, topping the Bundesliga table after four rounds. Since then, he never relinquished the top spot until the final day, and most importantly, he defeated Bayern Munich both home and away without conceding a goal.
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- dw_sports
Leicester isn't the first.
English club Nottingham Forest preceded Kaiserslautern in that achievement two decades ago.
Brian Clough was one of the finest coaching minds in the game's history when he took over Nottingham in July 1975, soon joined by his assistant Peter Taylor, who had helped him make history with Derby County years before.
The duo led Nottingham to the top flight in 1977, and in their first season in the top division, they secured the only league title in Nottingham's history to date, defeating Liverpool.
But the duo didn't stop there; they guided Nottingham to win the European Cup twice consecutively in the following seasons, making Nottingham only the second English team to achieve this feat.
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- Theleaguemag
The Miracle of Montpellier
Paris Saint-Germain has dominated Ligue 1 since the Qatari takeover, but its early years weren't as straightforward. In the 2011-2012 season, they boasted players like Pastore, Gameiro, and Matuidi, yet the title ultimately went to the team that narrowly avoided relegation just the season before - Montpellier.
Montpellier stunned the world then by clinching their first-ever title, snatching it from the grasp of the Parisians with stars they brought into the limelight themselves, like Younes Belhanda, Rémy Cabella, and Olivier Giroud.
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- SiaranBolaLive
Sampdoria, the Champion
Led by Maradona, Napoli were the champions of Italy for the 1989-1990 season, while in Milan, Inter Milan had won the previous season's title with an 11-point lead over the runner-up - a mere 2-point victory then - with a team boasting names like Jürgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthäus, both World Cup champions.
On the other side of the city, there was AC Milan under Sacchi, European champions for two consecutive years, with their key trio having won the Ballon d'Or for two consecutive years as well.
In a league with such fierce competition, Sampdoria clinched their first and only Serie A title in their history in the 1991-1992 season, defeating all of them along the way. To add to the beauty of the picture, Sampdoria lost only 3 matches and was the highest-scoring team in the league.
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- SignoreMorty
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- SignoreMorty
Leicester's Astonishing Tale
Unlike Leicester City, most bookmakers placed the likelihood of winning the Premier League on five other clubs, yet all those clubs either finished in mid-table or were battling relegation.
One Leicester fan placed £10 on this bet as a joke. A friend offered her the bet, saying, "Don't worry, it'll be different this year," mocking Leicester's narrowly escaping relegation. Everyone laughed at the joke then, but by the end of the season, only Clark was laughing, as she pocketed £50,000 for nothing.
"I always ask my players to find that fire within them, that desire. Opportunities like this don't come around again. Embrace that desire and don't be ashamed of it. Look, it's now or never. We are hope for everyone in a world dominated by money."
These words were spoken by Claudio Ranieri, the man behind Leicester's miracle, who the game rewarded after years of living in the shadows.
Ranieri's words don't just encapsulate the essence of Leicester's story, but perhaps echo all similar tales of success.
In a capitalist world, clubs like Leicester and Leverkusen are the ones who always give us hope that the football we love still has room for dreamers.
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- RCleacker