As a football fan, have you ever felt the need to know which small teams have caused the biggest upsets in football history especially in a League.
Winning a league title in football is an incredible achievement. Overall, a team has to be better than every other team in the League (in all major departments) to win the title.
In an ideal situation, the big teams in the league are expected to challenge for or win the title.
However, there have been some exceptional cases of unexpected teams coming from nowhere to win the League.
Indeed, the biggest upsets in football League history are incredible. Why? It is not just a one-match wonder.
Being better than every other team in the league over the course of the season is an unreal achievement especially where there is little or no budget.
We’ll highlight some of the biggest upsets in football history in respect to league title wins across the world in no particular order.
Sporting CP | 2020/21 Season
Sporting had not won the Portuguese Primeira Liga for 19 years. But somehow, they miraculously won the league in the 2020/21 season.
Ideally, you’ll expect Porto or Benfica to win the Primeira Liga.
Take a look at the last 10 winners of the Premeira: it’s either Porto or Benfica.
| SN | Season | League Winners | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2019–20 | Porto | 82 |
| 2 | 2018–19 | Benfica | 87 |
| 3 | 2017–18 | Porto | 88 |
| 4 | 2016–17 | Benfica | 82 |
| 5 | 2015–16 | Benfica | 88 |
| 6 | 2014–15 | Benfica | 85 |
| 7 | 2013–14 | Benfica | 74 |
| 8 | 2012–13 | Porto | 78 |
| 9 | 2011–12 | Porto | 75 |
| 10 | 2010–11 | Porto | 84 |
Twente | 2009/10 Season
Twente FC won the Eredivisie title in the 2009/10 season in a somewhat surprising fashion.
A few years before they won the title, they were officially declared Bankrupt. But somehow, Steve Mc Laren masterminded a shocking League victory.
In the process, the Englishman became the first manager to win the league title for Twente.
It is indeed an upset because you’d expect Ajax or PSV to clinch the title.
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Az Alkmaar | 2008/09 Season
Az Alkmaar winning the Eredivisie in the 2008/09 season has to be one of the biggest upsets in football history.
Louis Van Gaal and his troops won the League by 11 points ahead of Twente, ahead of Twente Ajax, and PSV.
Feyenoord | 2016/17 Season
In the Eredivisie again, Feyenoord caused an upset in the 2016/17 season. They won the league by just 1 point on the last day of the season.
Usually, PSV or Ajax are expected to win the title but it proved to be different in that season.
In that campaign, they won 26 of their 34 matches, drew 4, and lost just 4 matches. They earned 82 points in total.
Only Ajax came closest to them with 81 points.
Leicester City | 2015/16 Season
In the history of the Premier League, no team has ever won the league in the manner Leicester City did. From the relegation spot, Leicester City became 5000/1 winners of the Premier League.
No one expected them to win. As of 2016, Premier League followers would expect Manchester City or Chelsea to win the League.
Leicester’s Premier League win is even more surprising because they were just promoted to the Premier League in the 2013/14 season.
Leicester’s fairly tail league title win will go down as one of the biggest upsets in the history of English football.
Auxerre | 1995/96 Season
In the 1995/96 season, Auxerre – whose coach served the longest in football history – won the French league and cup double.
They managed to win the league with just 72 points – which is a bit very low.
In the 2017/18 season, for example, PSG won the league with 93 points and Auxerre would have been 5th in that season with 72 points.
Nonetheless, Auxerre’s League win was still a shocker under the leadership of Guy Roux.
Incredibly, Roux had 44 seasons with Auxerre.
Nottingham Forest | 1977/78 Season
Nottingham Forest won the Premier League in the 1977/78 season after they had just been promoted from the Championship.
Without any doubt, this is one of the biggest upsets in football history.
Currently, Nottingham Forrest is in the Championship.
Blackburn Rovers | 1994/95 Season
Blackburn Rovers stunned Premier League fans in 1995 as they beat Manchester United to the league title by just 1 point.
This is one of the biggest upsets in the Premier League football history.
Ever since then, they’ve never really been close to winning the League.
Blackburn currently plays in the English Championship.
FC Kaiserslautern | 1997/98 Season
Just like Nottingham Forrest, Kaiserslautern won the League title after just being promoted from the second division.
Kaiserslautern won the Bundesliga by just 2 points – beating usual winners – Bayern Munich.
Chevio Verona | 1984/85 Season
Chievo Verona were never were a top team in Italy, and Juventus (with Platini and Boniek) were dominating in the 1980s. Verona came out of nowhere to win the Serie A in the 1984/85 season.
Coincidentally, that was the only season Italy didn’t announce the ref prior to the match. Verona came from nowhere to win and you could guess it never ever happened again.
Sampdoria | 1990/91 Season
They had an amazing team who won the Serie A title and nearly won the European Cup (in 1992) but haven’t come close since then.
Sampdoria’s League win was a major upset in Serie A because no one expected them to win.
Boavista | 2000/01 Season
Boavista shockingly won the Portuguese Primeira Liga in 2001, beating Porto by just one point.
Ever since then, they’ve never really come close to winning the League.
Deportivo La Coruna | 1999/2000 Season
Deportivo La Coruna won La Liga in 2000, although they spent €41.61m in transfers and had a world-class team. See below Deportivo’s league-winning squad in the year 2000.
| Position | Nationality | Player Name | Position | Nationality | Player Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Cameroonian | Jacques Songo’o | DF | Spanish | César |
| DF | Spanish | Manuel Pablo | FW | Spanish | Iván Pérez |
| DF | Spanish | Enrique Romero | MF | Brazilian | Flávio Conceição |
| DF | Morrocan | Noureddine Naybet | MF | Spanish | Manel |
| DF | Argentine | Gabriel Schürrer | MF | Spanish | Víctor |
| MF | Brazilian | Mauro Silva | DF | Spanish | Luis Ramis |
| FW | Dutch | Roy Makaay | MF | Brazilian | Donato |
| MF | Brazilian | Djalminha | MF | Spanish | Jaime |
| FW | Portuguese | Pauleta | FW | Morrocan | Salaheddine Bassir |
| MF | Spanish | Fran | MF | Yugoslavian | Slaviša Jokanović |
| FW | Argentine | Turu Flores | MF | Spanish | Fernando |
| MF | Argentine | Lionel Scaloni | GK | Spanish | Dani Mallo |
| GK | Czech | Petr Kouba | DF | Portuguese | Hugo Carreira |
Deportivo la Coruna’s title win in the 1999-2000 season was an upset win. From 2000 to 2005.
Unfortunately, Deportivo is currently in the Spanish 3rd tier league.
Valencia | 2003/04 Season
Incredibly, Rafael Benítez-led Valencia won the League by 5 points, beating star-studded Barcelona to the title.
See below the Barcelona Squad beaten to the title in 2004 under the stewardship of Frank Rijkaard.
| Position | Nationality | Player | Position | Nation | Player |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos. | Nation | Player | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| GK | Turkey | Rüştü Reçber | MF | Spain | Gabri |
| DF | Netherlands | Michael Reiziger | MF | Portugal | Ricardo Quaresma |
| MF | Netherlands | Edgar Davids | MF | Spain | Luis Enrique (captain) |
| DF | Mexico | Rafael Márquez | MF | Spain | Luis García |
| DF | Spain | Carles Puyol | MF | Brazil | Thiago Motta |
| MF | Spain | Xavi | MF | Spain | Andrés Iniesta |
| FW | Argentina | Javier Saviola | GK | Spain | Víctor Valdés |
| MF | Netherlands | Phillip Cocu | MF | Spain | Ramón Ros |
| FW | Netherlands | Patrick Kluivert | DF | Spain | Óscar López |
| MF | Brazil | Ronaldinho | GK | Spain | Albert Jorquera |
| MF | Netherlands | Marc Overmars | DF | Spain | Oleguer |
| DF | Netherlands | Giovanni van Bronckhorst | FW | Spain | Sergio García |
| MF | Spain | Gerard | MF | Spain | Sergio Santamaría |
| DF | Spain | Mario |
The most interesting thing about Valencia’s title win is that they were 5 points behind with just 10 matches to go.
Lille | 2020/21 Season
How Lile managed to win the French Ligue 1 at the expense of PSG is beyond explanation.
They sold their talisman (in Victor Osimhen to Napoli) just before the season started. Somehow they still managed to win the league.
Lille’s title win is one of the biggest upsets in football history.
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Montpellier | 2011/12 Season
In the French Ligue 1 again, Montpellier caused another upset in the 2011/12 season.
Montpellier won their first-ever Ligue 1 title by 3 points, ahead of PSG.
In that season, Oliver Giroud was the league’s highest goalscorer with 21 goals.
Interestingly, Montepeliier didn’t even have up to a fifth of PSG’s budget, yet they clinched the title ahead of them.
It was indeed a shocker.
Athletico Madrid | 2013/14 Season
Athletico were a side that had 1/6 of the squad value of Barca and Madrid who were in their golden eras. In addition, Messi and Ronaldo were somewhat in their prime.
They won it on the final matchday of the season, in the Camp Nou of all places.
Barca would’ve won the title had they won that game but a Godin header won Atleti their first la Liga title in 19 years. It was just unbelievable.
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