From the Miracle on Ice, to the defeat of Mike Tyson by Buster Douglas, we have seen many underdog stories throughout the history of sports.
Practically all of these underdog stories (with the exception of Texas Western's NCAA Basketball Championship in 1965-1966) occurred during the course of one game or one night as a "miracle" that would never happen again. But not all underdog stories were meant to be like this.
This year's story comes from the world of football as Leicester City FC were officially crowned as Champions of the English Premier League on May 2.
But this story is about more than a simple one-game upset or miracle. This story took place over the course of a whole season. This, as well as many other factors, make this the greatest underdog story in the history of sports.
Their Odds of Winning the League
Leicester City's odds of winning the English Premier League at the beginning of the season were placed at 5000-1. No underdog has ever overcome greater odds in sports history. To place these odds into perspective, the New York Times calculated the odds of the USA Hockey team winning the gold medal over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics at 1000-1.
They Were Favorites for Relegation
For those that are unaware of how the English Premier League is structured, there are 20 clubs in the English Premier League. Each club plays 38 fixtures in a season earning three points from a win, one point from a draw, and zero points for a loss. The club with the most points at the end of the season wins the league and the three clubs with lowest point tally at the end of the season get relegated to the league below the Premier League known as the Football League Championship.
Leicester's odds of getting relegated were placed at 3-1 at the start of the season, making them favorites for relegation amongst all Premier League Clubs.
The Financial Structure of the English Premier League Favors the Big Clubs
When you think of the English Premier League, you think of Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea. When you think of Major League Soccer in the US, you think of the LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders, and of New York City FC.
However, while the MLS has a salary cap of $3,660,000 to prevent the big clubs from completely taking over the league, the EPL has none.
Instead, the BPL follows UEFA's Financial Fair Play Regulations which practically does nothing to stop reckless spending of big clubs on player salaries and transfer fees. As UEFA states: "Financial fair play is about improving the overall financial health of European club football."
UEFA attempts to enforce the various regulations set forth by Financial Fair Play with sanctions placed on clubs that break these regulations. However, clubs can often find ways to bend the rules of Financial Fair Play without getting sanctions placed on them. Plus, regulations are centered around annual revenue and losses incurred, not around total money spent. Therefore, the big clubs can still spend more on player salaries and transfer fees than the little clubs since the big clubs earn more revenue annually as a result of greater TV deals and larger merchandising and gate receipts resulting from greater fan bases.
Since the inception of the EPL in 1992, Leicester became only the sixth side to win the title. The sides that have won the EPL in the past have practically all been built on powerful financial oligarchies. Leicester, on the other hand, worked with much less money at their disposal to achieve the ultimate triumph. They showed us that football is not all about money. That hard work, passion, and sacrifice can lead to success.
Claudio Ranieri
Claudio Ranieri has managed 16 different teams since 1986, though his league title with Leicester has to be his best achievement since starting his managerial career.
Ranieri has faced serious criticism for his tenures at Chelsea FC and at the Greece National Football Team. While at Chelsea, Ranieri was sacked in 2004 with former footballer and pundit David Platt famously criticizing Ranieri saying "building a team that can win the title and actually steering this team to the title are two different matters entirely."
Ranieri's tenure at Greece was arguably his worst ever tenure as a manager. He was only in charge of the team for four matches and did not win one match before getting sacked on the back of an embarrassing 3-1 home defeat to the Faroe Islands.
Leicester were therefore met with heightened criticism after becoming the first team to appoint Ranieri following his disastrous tenure with Greece. This criticism was further magnified after the club had fired Nigel Pearson, who had saved the club from relegation the season before, over a racist sex scandal involving his son during the club's post-season tour to Thailand in 2015.
Many pundits including Marcus Christensen of The Guardian were baffled at the appointment of Ranieri saying he would not last long at Leicester or would get them relegated. However, Ranieri proved the skeptics wrong and lead Leicester to their first ever Premier League title while instilling an optimistic winning mentality at the club.
Jamie Vardy
While Vardy initially had a rough first season with Leicester and considered moving away, he stuck with the club after former manager Nigel Pearson convinced him to stay. Three years after this poor season with Leicester, Vardy has managed to break the record for most consecutive games with a goal in the Premier League and he is the season's second highest scorer in the league.
He was undoubtedly a key figure in Leicester City's unexpected title run and his story has touched many around the footballing world. To learn more about Jamie Vardy, watch his hilarious Draw My Life Video below.
