In the world of modern football, it may be rare to see a team dominate such that another team cannot challenge them for the title. It is when a team leaves behind every single competitor it has in the league that abnormally quick title wins take shape.
Often such victories are shaped by the inadequacies of the challengers and the qualities of the victors. The English Premier League, however, provides ample proof that teams can compete against each other as long as they have the hunger and desire.
With so many teams doing well across leagues around us, it makes for interesting reading when we figure out which teams embarked on the fastest league title triumphs in football history.
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Let’s have a look at when and how some of the fastest league triumphs transpired.
1) Olympique Lyonnais 2006-07
17 points separated Lyon and runners-up Marseille by the time the 38 game weeks had ended for the Ligue 1 season. Lyon, however, knew by the 32nd that they had won the title. The manager in the hot seat at the time was a face familiar to the Premier League, Gerard Houllier, previously the manager of Liverpool and later of Aston Villa.
This almost seems like an eon ago in spite of it not being all that much time since. This was a team that was powered by the magical foot of Juninho and the head of Fred who ended the term as Lyon’s top scorer that term.
Lyon were further powered by the abilities of a Florent Malouda in his prime with Eric Abidal rampaging on the overlap. Founded on a firm love for attacking football, this Lyon side scored the most and conceded the least that season to wrap up the title in style. This was a Lyon team that won six consecutive Ligue 1 titles in a row while PSG finished in 15th.
2) Paris Saint-Germain 2015-16
An odd result in the context of the modern game but not entirely unexpected. The French Ligue 1 has come under criticism from the world at the sight of a vastly superior Paris Saint-Germain side running away with the league in 30 game weeks with every other team feeling the heat of a side that has bought some of the best players from across the world.
Having said that, Laurent Blanc’s men played some fine football and garnered some amazing results on their way to collecting the Ligue 1 title. They seemed to almost punctuate the gap between top and bottom of Ligue 1, wrapping things up against bottom side Troyes, delivering a scalding 9-0 defeat to the side in the process.
PSG’s impressive run made them the quickest title winners in France beating the record set by Lyon almost a decade ago.
3) Bayern Munich 1972-73
Bayern Munich have been in the top flight for well over 50 years now and from the look of things they’ve dominated the German top flight for most of that time. It wasn’t a surprise when Udo Lattek’s men powered by Gerd Muller’s 36 goals, managed to wrap up the German Bundesliga title by the 30th game of the Bundesliga season.
Not bad for a team that was in its 8th season in the top flight, you would think. However, compared to some of the other leagues in European football, this was an 18 team league with 34 games in the season.
It is also worth noting that the wrapping up of a title this quick was further made difficult by a point structure that awarded two points for a win and one for a draw, a system that remained till 1995. Not bad, Bayern!
4) Bayern Munich 2002-03
No surprise these boys make it to the list again. This was a great run in the Bundesliga history for many reasons. Ottmar Hitzfeld’s men turned the league inside out and won the title within the record equaling 30 weeks that was set by their predecessors exactly three decades ago.
The difference was that this was a record set in the modern three points for every win structure which does slightly make this the slightest bit easier opposed to the efforts of the team 30 years ago. The team also won the DFB Pokal to make it a worthy double.
This team, however, suffered in Europe and was beaten in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League four times from their six games. This form saw them rooted to the bottom of the table in their group but that did nothing to deter them domestically.
5) Bayern Munich 2012-13
This is the part where the list may get boring. Bayern Munich again! This time, they did break all the set records though to wrap it up in 28 matches. What impresses majorly about the title charge here is the number of records that went tumbling in the season.
To start with, Bayern won the treble with the Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League and DFB Pokal in the bag.
Then begins a list of broken Bundesliga records which include most points amassed in a Bundesliga season (91); Biggest points difference with second placed team (25); Most wins in a season (29); Fewest losses(1); Fewest goals against (18); Most clean sheets (21), Goal difference (+80) and a bucket load of other records and statistics.
If Pep Guardiola ever needed a tough act to follow, the one he followed into the Bundesliga was it, Jupp Heynckes. Yes, this wasn’t Pep Guardiola tumbling those records with this team, it was Jupp Heynckes, the man who set Europe alight with his Bayern juggernaut.
