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Football is universally referred to as the 'beautiful game'. It has become an integral part of so many people's lives. Most of us have clubs we follow, teams we support regardless of their achievements or their on-field performances. It is truly wonderful to think about how much a football club can mean to us.
Football can offer us moments that we can never forget about, memories we'll cherish for a lifetime and tell our grandchildren.
Will you ever forget Leicester City's improbable Premier League triumph in 2016? Or Bayern Munich scoring eight goals past Marc-Andre ter Stegen last season?
Outside of mainstream football clubs, people still talk about the Nottingham Forest side led by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, an English team that won consecutive European Cups only two years after promotion from the Second Division.
Very recently, tiny English eighth-tier football club Marine AFC faced off against London giants Tottenham Hotspur. It was a day the Merseyside football club and their fans will never forget.
In the game's opening exchanges, Marine AFC winger Neil Kengni hit the bar from outside the box. What a moment that could've been had that gone in! Kengni, incidentally, happens to be a trainee plumber.
There are many such stories of nondescript European football clubs not many may have heard of. On that note, let's have a look at three such football clubs and their endearing stories.
#3 Luton Town - Relegation from Championship to Fifth Division and the climb up the English football tiers
Luton Town were founded in 1885, and six years later, they became the first professional football club in South England.
During their eventful journey through the English football divisions, The Hatters spent 16 seasons in the top tier. Their longest spell was ten consecutive years from 1982 to 1992.
Even though Luton haven't reached that level in the Premier League era, life as a Luton Town fan this century has been far from uneventful.
The Luton club started this millennium in English football's third tier before they were relegated to the fourth in 2001. However, they gained an instant promotion back to the Third Division. With new owners coming in, three years later, Luton Town moved up to the Championship.
Luton surprised everyone that season, finishing mid-table above current Premier League sides Brighton & Hove Albion, Southampton and Leicester City.
Unfortunately, the club didn't have the financial structure to keep hold of their star players. While the next season started well - they were fifth after the first 13 games -, a seven-game losing streak diminished any hopes of a sensational promotion to the Premier League. Luton Town finished rock bottom and returned to the third tier.
After falling into administration, the South-east side were deducted ten points in the third tier (League One). Player sales, a club take-over and relegation to League Two continued. Could things have gone any worse? The answer would be in the affirmative.
Luton Town had to start the season with -30 points in League Two due to their failure to agree to Company Voluntary Agreement, being in administration and financial irregularities.
The Hatters finished 15 points behind safety and, next season, found themselves in the fifth tier. While their time outside the English league football may have been miserable, Luton Town did create some remarkable memories.
In 2013, Luton Town became the first non-league club to beat a Premier League team in the FA Cup. That happened when the small South England side knocked out Norwich City 1-0 in the fourth round.
Luton Town returned to League 2 in 2014, and four seasons later, they gained promoted to League One. Against all odds, they won the league in their first attempt and returned to the Championship once again.
However, they had a rough first season back in the Second Division. The Hatters were 22nd before the season got halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak. But to their credit, they racked up 16 points in nine games (4-4-1) after the restart, which included an exciting 3-2 win on the final day to remain in the Championship.
In this campaign, Luton Town have fared better, currently sitting 16th in the Championship. While Premier League promotion looks like an unrealistic proposition, the same can be said about relegation too. With 12 games to go, Luton Town are 12 points above the drop zone.
Luton Town are moving forward with the times and will relocate to a new stadium in the next few years. Why is this such a big deal?
That's because the Hatters have played in Kenilworth Road since 1905, which is a pretty unique stadium in the modern era.
#2 Palermo: Relegation to Serie D despite having a star-studded football team
If Luton Town have returned to where they once were (English football's Second Division), one could say that Palermo are at the very start of their journey back to the top.
In 2004, two years after Palermo were bought by businessman Maurizio Zamparini, Rosanero returned to the Serie A after more than 30 years in Italy's second and third football tiers. Led by Luca Toni, Palermo had an excellent first season, finishing an impressive sixth and qualifying for the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) for the very first time.
The Sicilian football side had an even better second season; they finished fifth in their next campaign and also reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia. Meanwhile, on their European debut, Palermo reached the second round of the UEFA Cup knock-outs, losing to Schalke 04 1-3 on aggregate.
After four Palermo players - including Andrea Barzagli - won the FIFA World Cup with Italy, several impressive signings were made by the football club, and Rosanari were expected to continue their rise.
Even though the Sicilians had another top-5 finish in 2007, there was a massive disappointment in missing out on the Champions League, European club football's blue riband event. Palermo were on course to finish in the Champions League spots, but a shocking second half of the season - only four wins in 19 games - put paid to those hopes.
Palermo failed to lift their form in the next season, finishing 11th. However, with former Italy forward Fabrizio Miccoli and a young Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani up front, Javier Pastore in midfield and Salvatore Sirigu in goal, Rosanari had another fifth-place finish in 2010.
Before the start of the next season, Palermo also acquired a currently well known forward Josip Ilicic and went on to have another top-ten finish in the league, returned to European competitions and reached their third Coppa Italia final in the football club's history.
But then came the slide. In their next two seasons, Palermo had eight managerial changes, finished 16th before getting relegated to Serie B in 2013 after ending in 18th place.
After adding Andrea Belotti to their ranks, Rosanari broke Italian football's second-tier record with 86 points and made a swift return to Serie A.
Argentinian strikers Paulo Dybala and Franco Vazquez had a strong season in Palermo's first season back in the Italian top flight, helping the Sicilian club to 11th place, just below AC Milan, and only seven points off a Europa League spot.
But that was not a precursor of better things to come. Palermo had an indifferent campaign the next season, changing managers seven times in 2015-16 and narrowly escaping relegation by finishing 16th.
After selling several key players in the summer, Rosanari had an even worse season, as they endured relegation to Serie B again.
The football club's financial situation continued to worsen. After several owner changes, the prospect of relegation to Serie C was a real one for Palermo.
In May 2019, they were initially able to avoid losing their place in Serie B and received a docking of 20 points due to financial irregularities. But only two months later, Palermo were formally excluded from all professional leagues for an extremely serious breach of Italian company law.
From being a competitive Serie A team with players like Barzagli, Sirigu, Dybala, Cavani, Toni and many more potentially world-class players, Palermo were relegated to Serie D.
It is worth mentioning that Rosanari won Serie D on their first attempt and are now in the Serie C.
In this respect, Palermo would like to emulate Parma, a football team that successfully returned to the top division after being relegated to Serie D.
#1 FK Metta - Youngest football team in Europe
Football School (FS) Metta is a football academy in Latvia. It was founded only 14 years ago, in 2006. Since 2012, its Football Club, FK, has played in Latvia's top division - Virsliga.
Since FS Metta were founded, they have had an exclusive deal with Latvian University. Players are offered a scholarship and a chance to study in their time off. That is why fans have nicknamed Metta as 'students'.
One of Metta's main vision is to become a school where a player can become an educated professional both on a football field and outside it.
In 2013, they started a programme called 'football classes'. It was a new way of teaching and nurturing footballers in Latvia. Metta academy players from the same age group studied in the same class together.
That meant Metta youth players grew up together and developed strong bonds and chemistry with each other.
It could be the best time to start following FK Metta. Let's find out why.
Do the maths: FS Metta started its operations in 2006. The first players to enter their football academy were born in 2000 and 2001. That means football players who have gone through the FS Metta academy are now making their debuts in the first team.
Last season, 16 academy players born between 2000 and 2004 played for FK Metta. But during preparations for next season, which started last week, five more youngsters trained with the first team.
That made Students comfortably the youngest football team in Europe's top leagues, with an average age of 19.5 years.
That even led to a very rare instance: in 2020, FK Metta's two oldest players were only 23 years old. The club jokingly refers to them as 'veterans'.
It is also worth following Metta youngsters' progress with the Latvian national teams. An interesting fact: since June 2018, every Latvian U-17, U-18, U-19 or U-21 national team match has had at least one player that has come through the FS Metta academy.
The class of 2001 for Metta has been especially successful. This age group has had 13 players in youth (U-17 and above) in Latvian national teams. In 2017, nine of them played in the same game for the Latvian U-17 team.
Last year in September, Raimonds Krollis became the first FS Metta academy player in the Latvian senior team. Hopefully, he would be the first of many in the very near future.
