The 7 Greatest Underdog Stories In Football History

in the 2013 FA Cup Final little old Wigan Athletic Meed in the Premier League relegation Zone at the time having won just nine League games all season came up against the mate of Manchester City the richest team in World football the citizens had spent £550 million in just four seasons since their emirati Takeover in 2008 creating a star studded starting 11 which featured the likes of yayat T toé David Silva Sergio Aguero and Carlos tavas they were the reigning champions of England had already done the double over Wigan in the league and over half of their starting 11 cost more than wigan's entire Squad rarely had the outcome of an FA Cup Final appeared to have been more of a foregone conclusion but having frustrated their state owned opponents for 91 miraculous minutes substitute Ben Watson came off the bench to seal his spot in football folklore with a dramatic header an injury time 3 Days Later Wigan lost 4-1 against Arsenal and their Premier League relegation was confirmed making them the first Club ever to win the FA Cup and get relegated in the same season today they compete in League one the third TI of English football having been blad by Scandal and crisis for the past decade meanwhile Manchester City have become the dominant Force at English and perhaps now European football but for 990 minutes on the biggest stage of them all Wigan went toe-to-toe with a team that ought to have thrashed them and pulled off one of the greatest upsets that the sport has ever seen it is one of the reasons why football is the most popular sport in the world the low scoring nature of it combined with the unpredictability of what can happen in just 90 minutes opens it up to incredible shocks upsets and drama especially in Cup competitions Iceland a nation of fewer than 400,000 people knocked in England out of Euro 2016 before becoming the smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup meanwhile Denmark won the Euros in 1992 despite failing to even qualify for the tournament it was only after the Yugoslav wars broke out and Yugoslavia were to qualified that Denmark were offered their place as the runners up behind Yugoslavia from their qualifying group they went on to beat France the Netherlands and finally Germany in the final to record a historic upset which was made all the more remarkable given that their star player Michael lowr had refused to participate at the 1950 World Cup Brazil's Victory on home soil was considered a formality especially after they beat Sweden 7-1 and Spain 61 in their final game against Uruguay who had drawn two all with Spain and only won 3-2 against Sweden Brazil only needed a draw to win the World Cup Brazilian newspapers were so confident that they had already printed the morning's headlines so celebrating Brazil's World Cup win before the game had been played despite going 1 nil up against Uruguay though Brazil went on to lose 21 in an upset so shocking it sent Brazil into a state of mourning it's because of that the Brazil playing yellow and green as they ditched their previous white and blue kit believing it to have been cursed you know that it's a pretty big upset when the losing team under goes an identity change after the match well today hard as this may be to believe I am here to tell you that there have been seven even more remarkable upsets and triumphs by dark horses than all of those that I just mentioned yes here are with several honorable mentions what I would consider to be the seven greatest Underdog stories in the history of football seventh C's 2000 CP to France for an English audience the word Cal is only likely to mean one thing it's that bit of France that is quite close to us in France however this small Port City evokes memories of one of the greatest cup runs of all time the ca France is possibly the best domestic cup competition in World football due to France's lingering Colonial outposts it is a competition which spans five of the world's seven continents leading to a we days which can span over half of the diameter of the globe it also has an almost unique ability to throw up the most Sensational of cup sets in the FA Cup if an amateur team makes it through to the third round which is the stage of which premier league and championship teams enter the competition that is a historic achievement in the 1999 2000 cop to France an amateur team made it all the way through to the final Cal R UFC which stands for racing Union football club rather than Rugby Union football club just in case there was any confusion gave up their professional status all the way back in 193 38 and by 2000 they were competing in the Holy amateur champion at National 2 which is the fourth tier of French football that means that C's entire team had full-time jobs outside of football Defender Joselin Marin and Winger Mikel Gerard were shopkeepers who primarily sold alcohol to tourists on a day trip from England midfielder Stefan canu was a Gardner and C Starman Emanuel Vasser worked as an electrician on train in the channel tunnel C manager ladislas lazano a Spaniard who fled to France under General Franco was a council Foreman responsible for tending to the region sporting facilities this was a team that had no right to even dream of beating a professional opponent instead they beat five Dunkirk Le K Strasburg and even the mate of Bordeaux who were at that time the champions of the French game were humbled by this rag tag bunch of amateurs on route to the most unlikely of finals against nons in front of 78,79 City a Newcastle United star and Swan Sai doubly sadly Cal rufc with a badge which was so bad that it is actually brilliant also no longer exist situated in one of the most deprived cities in France Cal rfc's Financial woes echoed their surroundings and in 2017 the club was liquidated in 2023 Racing Club Cal were formed through a merger of two local clubs starting out in the sixth tier of the French game so Le and bordeau watch out sixth Greece at Euro 2004 as predictable of an inclusion as it is Justified Greece's Euro 2004 Crown is one of the single most remarkable achievements in the entire history of International Football Euro 2004 was only the second Euros that Greece had ever qualified for and the first since 1980 and perhaps the science ought to have been there as they recorded a shock 1-nil win away against Spain in qualifying nonetheless a month before the tournament Greece had lost 1 n against Poland and 4-nil against the Netherlands and few gave them a hope in Hell of getting out of a group containing both Portugal and Spain Greece beat the house 2-1 in the opening game of the tournament though and despite drawing with Spain and losing against Russia that was enough to earn the progression as groupe Runners up in the quarterfinals Greece faced the reigning European Champions France whose star studded starting 11 included the likes of tiar on re David trees and Zinedine zidan unmoved Greece beat them 1- nil then came the Czech Republic who had won all three of their group games against Germany lvia and the Netherlands followed by an emphatic 3-nil win against Denmark in the quarterfinals this was a generational Czech Republic team featuring petek Thomas ritky Yan CA Milan baros and the reigning Balon door winner pavl nedved once again Greece won 1 n in the final of Euro 20 four just as in the opening game Greece faced the host Portugal it didn't matter that Greece had already beaten them as far as most onlookers were concerned as since then a Portugal team starring the likes of Ls Figo ruie Costa Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo had hit form beating the likes of Spain England and the Netherlands on home soil it seem to be written in the stars that they would win their first ever major tournament again though someone forgot to email gree the script it a typically dogged Relentless and EMB battled performance they didn't give away an inch it was via the head of ver brayman forward Angelos kisas with his third goal of the tournament that Greece recorded the single greatest Euros upset of all time this was a team without a single certified Superstar the closest anyone came was the indomitable georgeos caragounis though even he had only managed to make 21 League appearances in two season at Inter Milan Greece's manager Otto rogle is perhaps the greatest author of Underdog stories that football has ever known responsible for both Vera brayman and most notably FC Kaiser slon improbable Bundesliga titles the latter coming just the season after Kaiser slon had won promotion even for rogle Euro 2004 was his crowning moment incidentally it appeared as though 2004 was a special year for underdogs Valencia won La Liga brayman won the Bundesliga Porto won the Champions League and Monaco made it to the final and most notably of all once Kash shocked South American football by first making it all the way to the final and then overcoming bcka Juniors to lift the copper lied AAS fifth Iraq's 2007 Asian cup I have done my best to rank this seven in terms of the degree of shock and the sheer unlikeliness of sum of football greatest ever Underdog stories but in terms of romance tragedy and a compelling narrative none can compete with Ira's Triumph for the 2007 Asian cup it would be fair to say that both before and indeed since 2007 life in Iraq has routinely been rendered extremely difficult the baist party seized power in 1968 in a bloodless coup with Saddam Hussein becoming president in 1979 Saddam ran a sadis IC regime of fear as well as starting the Iran Iraq war which claimed the lives of between 1 to 2 million people before ending an estal mate and the Gulf War which led to 5 million people being displaced in 2003 the United States United Kingdom and their allies including Australia and Poland invaded Iraq falsely accusing Saddam of having weapons of mass destruction saram was overthrown and later executed but the resulting occupation power vacuum and conflicts between Insurgent groups and counterinsurgents created even more misery for Iraqis as well as leading to the rise of groups Lake Isis it was in this context in 2007 that Iraq's national football team headed to the AFC Asian cup jointly hosted by Indonesia Malaysia Thailand and Vietnam given the circumstances that Iraq had even managed to Cobble a team together and get them to the tournament was an achievement in of itself but their Ambitions didn't stop there under Saddam Iraq's football and Olympic teams had come under the direct control of Adai Hussein saddam's even more sadistic son whose fetish for violence was so extreme that even Saddam concluded that he was unsuitable to succeed him aai tortured Iraq's footballers literally in extremely brutal fashion as well as creating his own domestic football team and ensuring that they conquered aqi football and opposed I have covered all of this in a documentary should any of you be interested just search hc7 Iraq or something like that and it will be the top result heading into the 2007 Asian cup Iraq were ranked 84th in the FIFA world rankings below Continental Rivals like usbekistan China and Aman Iraq's players train through intermittent air strikes and constant fears for the safety of themselves and their loved ones Winger how are mulah Muhammad even carried a machine gun to training so fearful was he of his safety meanwhile goalkeeper North sab's brother-in-law was killed just days before the tournament began in the group stage Iraq beat Australia's golden generation featuring the likes of Harry K Tim Cahill and Mark Thea 3-1 that alone would have been remarkable enough but Iraq proceeded to beat Vietnam South Korea and finally Saudi Arabia in the final to lift their first and still their only AFC Asian cup throughout Half A Century Of Misery imposed upon the Iraqi people football has provided a rare unifying force and source of optimism even if that sanctity was abused by a die and at the 2007 Asian cup they provided inspiration not only to Iraqis but to the world in terms of the Triumph of human spirit in the face of extraordinary adversity both on and off the pitch fourth Le's 2021 league on title if I had to Hazard a guess I would imagine that this is the inclusion that will probably feel the least satisfying to a lot of you watching this and the one that some of you would be most inclined to swap out for some of the honorable mentions with that in mind I'll try to explain why Le's 2021 league on title I believe is the fourth greatest Underdog Story in football history and wouldn't look out of place in third second or first for a start Lea ought to be a one Team league in the 2020 21 season psg's wage bill was four times larger than the wage bill of any other team in league on at over half a billion EUR the next largest wage bill in the division wasn't leal's it was Mars's Leo's wage bill of 89 million e was just over a sixth or 17.69% to be specific of the size of psgs Le's entire Squad earn less than Neymar and Killian mbapp that is a financial mismatch far greater than the gap between Manchester City and Bournemouth for example and it would be roughly equivalent in financial terms to Sheffield United beating Manchester City to this season's premier league title it doesn't stop there though because the season that LE won the league on title they sold over 100 million euros worth of players including their Star Striker Victor oen and Center back Gabriel and they only reinvested €40 million on new arrivals the previous season they had also lost Nicola Pepe rafela and Thiago Mendes again raking in more than 70 million EUR in profit in the circumstances Le ought to have been nowhere near the title but over a 38 game campaign they lost just three games whilst PSG lost eight they drew a lot more games than the parisians it should be said but their remarkable defensive record good conceding just 23 goals in 38 games was enough to win them a league title that should never have been possible third helis Verona's 1985 Seria title maybe the most overlooked Underdog Story in European football history whenever I make one of these videos which isn't very often these days after planning out my own seven I just take a look at how other people would rank the same topic so in this context the game's greatest shocks upsets or dark courses inevitably in this context again the likes of Greece's Euro 2004 conquest and Iceland beating England are always in there but helis Verona winning the 1984 85 Sera title which I would argue is a more remarkable achievement barely if ever gets a mention we should start by noting that in the mid 1980s Seria was the Undisputed best league in Europe and almost certainly the best in the world virtually every team was chocka block with superstars Inter Milan had jpe beomi Liam Brady and Carl Hines romega AC Milan had Franco beri Paulo Maldini and Petro Pao Veris Juventus had Zab of bonc Michelle platini and Paulo Rossi and of course Napoli had Diego Armando maradon so which one of them went on to win the scarto well as you've probably established by now the answer is none of them in fact none of those four even managed to finish second it was helis Verona who had finished eight the previous season closer to the relegation Zone than the top of the table who shot the Italian game and won their first and still their only Seria title at the time Italian football was known for its defensive tactics and lack of goals defined by the katano system and Verona who only won promotion to serat under Osvaldo boli in 1982 became the masters of that system in the 1984 85 season Rock Solid and absolutely dogged in their defensive duties Verona conceded just 19 goals all season and only lost two games it was a freak season and one of the greatest Underdog stories of all time as was reinforced by Verona dropping all the way down to 10th The Following season 17 points off the title and just Five Points above the relegation Zone second West Germany of the 1954 World Cup the greatest Underdog Story in the history of International Football is West Germany's 1954 World Cup win I know what some of you will be thinking Germany the Relentless winning machine Europe's most successful national team who have won four World Cups them winning the World Cup is the greatest Underdog Story in the history of International Football yes yes I'm afraid it is less than a decade after after the end of World War II in which Germany was almost totally destroyed with almost one in 10 Germans being killed and over a third of all buildings in major cities raised to the ground the country was literally split in three West Germany East Germany and zarand German Football was arguably in an even worse State than the nation as a whole under the Nazis despite the Angelus and taking all of Austria's then very talented players Germany was still absolutely rubbish they were so so bad in fact that Joseph Geral eventually banned International Football due to the damage that it was doing to German morale and propaganda post World War II Germany and Japan were effectively banned from competing in the 1950 World Cup and by the time the 1954 World Cup came around football had only been played professionally in Germany for 5 years the nation's first Nationwide professional football league meanwhile the Bundesliga wouldn't be founded for another 9 years in the groups stage Germany beat turkey 4-1 in their opening game before losing 883 against Hungary at the time Hungary were the best national team in the world in fact they were probably the best national team that has ever existed or at least the most dominant scoring the highest ELO ranking in the history of International Football Hungary had only lost one game in the last four years during which time they had twice beaten Italy 3-0 czecher Slovakia 5-1 and England 6 3 and 71 at the World Cup as well as battering West Germany 83 in the group stage Hungary beat South Korea 90 and both Brazil and Uruguay 4-2 on route to the final West Germany meanwhile recovered from their Hungarian hammering to earn a meeting with the magical majar in the final hungary's Epoch defining team combined with their earlier thrashing of West Germany made them the odds on favorites and after just 8 minutes they had already raced in into a 2-n lead a repeat of the 83 group stage thrashing looked to be firmly on the cards but in the pouring Swiss rign in a game that became known as the miracle of burn West Germany fought back going on to win the match 3-2 in both the immediates and the since long-term aftermath the inquest as to how Germany were able to win has been intense coach seph herberg arrested players for Germany's group stage tie with Hungary in order to lure their potential final opponents in to a false sense of security is one suggestion though not wholly satisfying given the degree of hungary's dominance at the time ference push gash Hungary star man though he still managed to score in the final was playing through an injury that likely would have ruled him out were it any other game that a World Cup final then there was the rain which stunted hungary's ability to play that or inspiring passing game but helped the Germans who had Innovative new screwi in studs designed by Adidas the refereeing decision surrounding Germany's second and hungary's disallowed third goals have also long been the subjects of debate in addition to more Sinister accusations of doping on the part of the German players incidentally doping wasn't actually banned at the time thifa only implemented rules prohibiting it in 1966 whatever the explanation the 1954 World Cup and primarily the World Cup final is the greatest Underdog Story in International Football history and if anything the mythology which attempts to explain it only adds to its sense of wonder and Mystic zero honorable mentions I mentioned a few of them in the introduction and have scattered a couple more throughout but quite frankly it is in the nature of football to have upsets and Underdog stories and I couldn't possibly name all of those honorable mentions who deserve recognition even if this segment alone were half an hour long nonetheless some of those which came particularly close to featuring but didn't and which I haven't already mentioned include the likes of wimbledon's 1988 FA Cup win Nottingham Forest European Cup double an all amateur USA team beating England at the 1950 World Cup Kaiser slaton's 1998 Bundesliga title Red Star Belgrade and sty Bucharest winning the Champions League Vera breman's 2004 double algeria's 1982 World Cup win against the West Germans bua sport lifting the 2010 Turkish Super League title amateur cavelli following in the footsteps of calal in making it through to the final of the 2012 coup def fronts Zambia's 2012 afcon Triumph montpelier's league on title in the same year and Real Madrid's Reserve Team Real Madrid Castilla making it all the way through to the final of the cop at El re where they met their parent Club Real Madrid all very honorable mentions I'm sure you'd agree but now it is time for what I would imagine mantion at this stage is a fairly predictable top spot first Leicester City's 2016 premier league title there is a reason why though upsets giant killings and Underdog stories are much more common in Cup competitions three League triumphs featuring this seven and that is because it is so much more difficult for an underdog to succeed across an entire league campaign rather than over a single 90 minutes or six or seven games in a knockout format helis fona and Leo's title wins ought not to have been possible for that reason but Leicester City's 5000 to1 premier league title takes the biscuit to put those odds into some context at the start of that season you could get odds of 2000 to one on it turning out that Elvis Presley was in fact still alive and well the king of rock and roll hasn't yet returned it would be one hell of a climax to this video if I just announced that wouldn't it but Leicester city against all the odds were crowned as the 20156 champions of England the previous season had been leicester's first back in the Top Flight since 2004 and they only avoided relegation by the Skin of Their Teeth anchored not just to the relegation Zone but actually to the foot of the Premier League table even at the start of April at which point Leicester had won just four games out of a possible 29 all season they then went on a miraculous run winning seven out of their last nine games to claw their way to safety over the summer manager Nigel Pearson was Saed in a decision which was reported to have been linked to his son James appearing in an allegedly racist sex tape during Lester's preseason tour of Thailand Pearson was replaced by claudo raner who had been sacked after just four months four games one draw and three defeats in charge of Greece's national team in his most recent job leester were installed therefore as one to three favorites to go down and ludicrous 5,000 to1 odds to win the Premier League as if things weren't already hard enough for the foxes Leicester lost their player of the season from the previous season Esther B cambiaso over the summer and replaced him with a little known Frenchman called engolo kante it turned out that kante was really rather good though and Leicester made a fairly miraculous start to the campaign Leicester lost just one of their opening seven matches and even following a 5-2 defeat at home to Aral they bounced back to go on another 10 game unbeaten run Jamie vardy who scored five Premier League goals the previous season exceeded that tally after seven games and went on to score 24 Premier League goals in total Robert Huth signed for3 million from Stokes city was a Colossus alongside Wes Morgan meanwhile Riyad mahrez bewildered fullbacks the length and breadth of Britain Leicester went on to win the Premier League title fairly comfortably they finished 10 points above Arsenal having led the table uninterrupted from the middle of January onwards in the modern game and particularly in heavily financialized major leagues like the Premier League outcomes are determined so strictly by spending now that you can guess the top six or seven Now by just naming the seven richest clubs and you are likely to get at least six out of seven rate each season in that context a team that was nearly relegated the previous season was playing in the champion ship the season before that and who lost their manager and best player the previous season in preseason not just breaking into the top six which would have been remarkable in its own right but actually emphatically winning the league that is the single greatest Underdog Story in the history of football and it is extraordinarily unlikely that it will ever be repeated at least so long as football maintains its current structures and business model that is it for today's video and if you enoy enjoyed it then you have the wonders of artificial intelligence to thank they didn't write record or edit it no that took me 2 days with very little sleep and a horrendous cold apologies if I still sound a bit off but I made it as an experiment after asking AI what would make for an interesting hc7 video and it replied the greatest Underdog stories in football history so if you enjoyed it we are all doomed and AI is about to become our overlords and if you didn't then fair not I will soon revert to picking my own video ideas without consulting any robots either way hit the like button to celebrate football's ability to create Underdog stories that defy belief let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and of course goes what I was saying make sure that you are subscribed and have notifications turned on for both this channel H c7s and also my second Channel Alfie pots Arma both of which should be on or about to appear on your screens now along with a couple of videos that you might enjoy watching after this one I'll try to remember to include that a rack video but there's a decent chance I forget as I said it's quite easy to search for you can also find me on Twitter Instagram or threads via the username @ hc7 on all three and all of those links plus a whole lot more should be down in the video description below

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 140,472

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Underdog, Stories, Underdogs, Upsets, Shocks, Surprises, Premier League, Leicester City, Greece, Euro 2004, Jamie Vardy, Iraq, 2007 Asian Cup, World Cup, Champions League, Greatest, History, All Time

Id: fAx8jkvunB8

Length: 29min 16sec (1756 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 01 2023