The 10 greatest underdog teams in football history

#1 Leicester City, Premier League 2015/16

Leicester City's Premier League title win is football's ultimate underdog story

It was the ultimate underdog story – with the untold riches of the modern Premier League, no team since the turn of the century had broken the stranglehold that the big clubs – Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea – had over the league title outside of Manchester City, who used a massive injection of Arab oil money to do so.

Going into 2015/16, Leicester City were 5000/1 to win the title; they’d finished 14th in the previous season and had then fired manager Nigel Pearson, replacing him with “tinkerman” Claudio Ranieri.

Many pundits predicted doom for the Foxes, as they barely strengthened their squad and only spent around £26m on players who were either largely unknown or journeymen. But somehow, Leicester started the season on fire.

Fuelled by the goals and attacking prowess of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, and strengthened by a solid defence shielded by the eventual Player of the Year, N’Golo Kante, Leicester topped the table at Christmas.

Everybody kept expecting the bubble to burst but it just didn’t happen – Leicester beat Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City, and a February loss to Arsenal didn’t stop them, it merely galvanised them.

The Foxes didn’t lose another game in the season, and they secured the title with two games to spare, eventually winning it by ten points. It was an underdog story that will likely never happen again, but it gave truth to the old adage that in football, anything is possible.