Mjallby supporters at the stand during the soccer match between Mjallby AIF and Halmstad BK at Strandvallen in Hallevik, Sweden, Saturday Aug. 30, 2025. (Johan Nilsson /TT News Agency via AP)
October 21, 2025 - 3:55 AM
Mjällby has delivered the latest heartwarming underdog story in European soccer by winning the Swedish league title against all the odds.
A team playing its matches in a fishing village of around 800 people beside the Baltic Sea, Mjällby should not have been a threat to Sweden's traditional big clubs — not least nearby Malmö, which has a record 24 Allsvenskan titles.
Yet they've joined a list of unlikely league title winners in Europe down the years who continue to give hope to the smaller teams. Here's some of them:
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Leicester (2016)
There's only one place to start because it's perhaps soccer's greatest fairy tale.
A season after narrowly surviving relegation from the Premier League, Leicester — at preseason odds of 5,000-1 — stunned a bunch of Europe's best and richest clubs by winning the English title for the first time.
Jamie Vardy. N'Golo Kante. Riyad Mahrez. The list of Leicester heroes went on and on, and the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal just couldn't stop this upstart from central England managed by an avuncular Italian, Claudio Ranieri.
Boavista (2001)
Since 1946, only one team has gatecrashed the annual three-way title battle between Portugal's biggest teams: Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon.
That was Boavista, which notched the first — and only — league title in its 122-year history in 2001 under coach Jaime Pacheco.
Boavista only lost three of its 34 games and won the title with a match to spare. Only second-place Porto got within 15 points of the surprise champions and the Big Three haven't let it happen since.
Kaiserslautern (1998)
The only team to win the Bundesliga the season after being promoted is Kaiserslautern, which blindsided German soccer's two giants — Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund — to become its most unfathomable champion.
It all started with a 1-0 victory at Bayern in the opening round and Kaiserslautern — with hard-working players throughout the team — never looked back.
The title triumph was masterminded by its coach Otto Rehhagel, who — six years later — would work his miracles again by guiding Greece to glory in the European Championship.
Hellas Verona (1985)
Italy's most unexpected league champion was Hellas Verona, an unfashionable club from northern Italy which overpowered the likes of Juventus — the European champion that year — and Roma — the European Cup finalist the year before — and Diego Maradona's Napoli to win Serie A.
Only promoted in 1982, Verona won the league by four points under Osvaldo Bagnoli.
The campaign is perhaps best remembered for Danish striker Preben Elkjær scoring a brilliant goal in a win over Juventus despite his boot coming off as he made his attack. It has gone down in lore in Verona.
Montpellier (2012)
Qatari investment in Paris Saint-Germain during the 2011-12 season would be a game-changer for French soccer, but it came too late to stop Montpellier pulling off a scarcely believable charge to the title.
The small club from the south of France produced a rousing finish to the season to overhaul PSG and Lille to capture the championship on the final day by three points, with star striker Olivier Giroud scoring 21 goals — tied for most in the league — to help secure a move to Arsenal that summer.
PSG, with its roll-call of superstars, has virtually dominated Ligue 1 ever since. In that sense, Montpellier's title triumph was perfectly timed.
Nottingham Forest (1978)
Before Leicester, there was Nottingham Forest.
The team of journeymen under Brian Clough that would go on to win the European Cup in 1979 and 1980 began its almost-miraculous journey by overpowering mighty Liverpool to claim the English league title in 1978 by a seven-point margin. A year earlier, they'd only just secured promotion by finishing third in the second division.
It was all orchestrated by charismatic manager Brian Clough, who had already won the English league against the odds with Derby in 1972. Now he'd done it with Forest, which also won the League Cup that season, beating Liverpool in the final after a replay.
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