Leicester City and other footballing fairy tales

Leicester City fans celebrated deep into the night after Tottenham failed to beat Chelsea on Monday night, handing the "Foxes" the Premier League title, the first top-flight championship in the club's history. Just over a year ago, Leicester had looked destined for relegation to the Championship, England's second tier.

Newly promoted Nottingham Forest lost just three of their 42 matches on their way to becoming champions of the old First Division in 1977-78. "I am a little bit stupid and a little bit of an idealist. We want to entertain, fill grounds and make people happy," their legendary coach, Brian Clough said. This statue of Clough, who passed away in 2004, stands in Nottingham's city center.

Three years after gaining promotion from Serie B, Hellas Verona surprised everybody by winning the Serie A titel. Among them was Hans-Peter Briegel, who had moved to Italy from Kaiserslautern prior to the season. The athletic defender contributed nine goals on the way to becoming the first player to be named Germany's player of the year while playing in a foreign league.

Long after Hans-Peter Briegel had left Kaiserslautern, they achieved the biggest comeback in German football history. After the "Red Devils" were relegated in 1996, they hired Otto Rehhagel as coach. Under Rehhagel, they were promoted on their first attempt - and marched all the way to the 1998 Bundesliga title. Kaiserslautern are the only newly promoted team to win the Bundesliga title.

Just after the turn of the millennium, Deportivo La Coruna managed to break the domination of Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid in the Primera Liga. The Galicians beat Barca, the previous season's champions, by five points to win their only Spanish league title.

Felix Magath led VfL Wolfsburg to a sensational finish to the 2008-09 season to win their only Bundesliga title. Magath was not just the coach and manager, but also the club's managing director. Grafite and Edin Dzeko scored 54 goals between them, a Bundesliga record for a striking tandem. The team stormed to the title with a run of 10 consecutive victories after the winter break.

Since 1984 one of Istanbul's big three clubs, Fenerbahce, Galatasaray or Besiktas has almost always won the Turkish league. The exception was in 2010, when Buraspor won the Super Lig on the last day of the season, finishing just one point above Fenerbahce.

The Ligue 1 championship was also decided on the last day of the season in 2012. HSC Montpelier wound up winning the only title in the club's history, three points ahead of Paris St. Germain. Manager Louis Nicollin (above right, with coach Rene Giroud) celebrated by having his hair dyed in the colors of the French flag.