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Firstly the soccer vs. football debate which has been going on forever is one many US citizens are familiar with. If you’ve ever tried talking about soccer with someone outside of the US, you’ve probably promptly been corrected. So for the sake of this article I will refer to soccer as football. and pick up this debate in a future article! Without doubt there have been many great individual and team sporting achievements down the years from all over the World but which really is the greatest ever underdog sporting achievement of all time? Now this really is how to start an argument? I can hear people rattling off their top 3! One reason this debate is so contentious is because under what criteria do you judge this? No two lists are ever the same. People also tend to let their allegiances blind them to reason or get carried away by national pride. The main problem is something way more fundamental as we are not even arguing about the same things. One thing we can all surely agree on is that everyone loves an underdog! TOP 15 CONTENDERS So lets take a look at the top 15 contenders (listed in date order). 1960: Pittsburgh Pirates defeat New York Yankees in the World Series1969: New York Mets win the World Series1969: New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III1980: The Miracle on Ice1983: N.C. State defeats Houston for the NCAA Championship1985: Villanova defeats Georgetown for the NCAA Championship1990: Buster Douglas defeats Mike Tyson1995: New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup2000: Rulon Gardner defeats Alexander Karelin at the Olympics2002: New England Patriots win Super Bowl XXXVI2003: Appalachian State beats Michigan2004: Greece wins the European Championship2008: New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII2015: Holly Holm defeats Ronda Rousey in UFC 1932015-16: Leicester City wins the Premier League title Source: https://www.mensjournal.com/sports/15-greatest-underdog-sports-stories-all-time/ QUALIFYING CRITERA Lets get some ground rules in place by creating a list of qualifying criteria. Size of Team: The team had to be made up of more than 5 members.Genuine Teams: To be considered a genuine "team," they had to cooperate their efforts during competition playing as one.Competitiveness: The team had to have a direct competitor trying to stop them, not a clock!Major Sports: The team had to compete in a major sport (sorry all you domino players)!Highest Level: The team had to be playing at the highest level. AND THE WINNER IS? Leicester City (pronounced Les-ter) winning the 2015-16 Premier League title, for me the Greatest Ever Underdog Sporting Achievement of all Time…(yes I am bias), as a lifelong Foxes supporter, (since 1980 to be precise). Bookmakers generally do not get it wrong and do not give odds of 5,000-1 on winning the league unless they are 99.9% certain it is not going to happen. In fact multiple bookmakers had never paid out at such long odds for any sport! To put these odds into context the same year you could have got odds of Hugh Hefner to admit he's a virgin - 1,000/1, or the Queen for Christmas number one - 1,000/1, or Elvis is alive? - 2,000/1 and finally Kim Kardashian for US president - 2,000/1 (looks like a good bet now)! The prior year they had escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth which makes this even more extraordinary! This is the first time in their 134 year history they have won the league and they are one of only six clubs to have ever won the Premier League since its inception in 1992. We know money talks in sports, you buy the best you win the most well in theory! But You just have to look at the stats to realize what an achievement this really was. This not only defied the bookmakers but also history, money, tradition and the basic fundamentals to the beautiful game of football. The WHOLE squad cost less than LeBron James latest $154 million contract. Lets look at some more statistics to prove my point: Had enough? I am not trying to convince you but what makes this truly remarkable is that it wasn’t a one off game, it was over the course of a season, some 38 games. Of course this is just my opinion and I am sure this will open up that age old debate. I would love to know what you believe is the GREATEST EVER UNDERDOG SPORTING ACHIEVEMENT OF ALL TIME? Thanks for reading. SportVEST is a Blockchain Sports VC Fund. Visit our website at: sportvest.io for more details. Also Don’t forget to join us on Telegram and follow us here on Scorum and Twitter.