The earthquakes that shook European football

On October 21, the Allsvenskan stadium shook when Mjallby AIF - a team from the small fishing village of Hallevik with a population of just over 1,000 people, won the Swedish championship in 2025 with 3 rounds to go. Mjallby's story is even more miraculous because the person leading them is Anders Torstensson, a... school principal, who has never coached professional football until 2023. The team was almost wiped out when playing in the 3rd division in 2016 due to the financial crisis.

Last season, Mjallby finished 5th, 15 points behind champions Malmo. But the 2025 season will write a new chapter for them, with their first national championship in 86 years. It is no surprise that European media have dubbed Mjallby the "Leicester City of Northern Europe". And in fact, the history of European football has witnessed many similar shocks, when small teams have overcome all limits to reach the top.

From 14th place the previous season, Leicester City entered the 2015/16 season with odds of 5,000 to 1 – so low it seemed like a joke. But under the hands of Claudio Ranieri, with the brilliant form of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and N'Golo Kante, "The Foxes" defeated all the big guys and won the English championship by a gap of 10 points.

In the midst of a brilliant Serie A era with stars like Diego Maradona and Michel Platini, an unknown Hellas Verona unexpectedly rewrote the order of Italian football. Losing only 2 matches throughout the 1984/85 season, Verona surpassed Juventus, Napoli, Milan and Inter to win the only Scudetto in the club's history.

Just as PSG entered an era of luxury and shopping sprees, Montpellier unexpectedly blocked the "oil empire" that was forming. With Olivier Giroud as the main spearhead, they won the French National Championship in 2011/12 , 3 points ahead of PSG - the only major title in the club's history. The team has just been relegated to Ligue 2 when they finished bottom of the table in the 2024/25 season.

Since the Turkish Super League was founded in 1959, only 4 teams including Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Trabzonspor have dominated. But in the 2019/20 season, Basaksehir broke that order, winning their first and only championship in history.

Two years after being relegated, Kaiserslautern returned to the Bundesliga and immediately... won the championship. Under the guidance of "Wizard" Otto Rehhagel, they beat Bayern Munich on the opening day. In the end, Kaiserslautern surpassed "The Gray Tigers" to win the title with a gap of more than 2 points. The 1997/98 season was also the first and only time a rookie was crowned in the Bundesliga.

After 11 years of Bayern Munich dominance, Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen rewrote Bundesliga history. When he took over, the team was second to last with 5 points after 8 games. A year later, Leverkusen not only won the Bundesliga but also won the domestic double without losing a single game – ending the "Neverkusen" nickname with a perfect 2023/24 season.

Source: https://znews.vn/nhung-con-dia-chan-lam-rung-chuyen-bong-da-chau-au-post1595976.html