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Football is now seen as the hub of commercial enrichment and entertainment. Footballers are celebrities and they personify the movement of the game away from the fans into a selected circle which is isolated from the day to day realities of the world.
The reality of sport and football is the beauty of emotion that it evokes. That is what attracts people to go in week after week and day after day and invest themselves in the performances and stories of their favourite side.
Some teams show grit to go ahead against all odds, others capitalise on the circumstances and make the most of it. Clubs face the same financial realities as any business and players operate on wages and the bigger the wage, the better the player. That is why transfer values and wages are so high in the top leagues.
However, the spirit of sports and humanity, passion and miracles all combine to produce some astonishing tales away from the tedious and dark realities of professional football. Here are five beautiful stories of clubs rising from obscurity with a little help from someone dear to them.
#5 Bournemouth
Bournemouth's story has been told many times over, with the English south coast club slowly becoming a part of the Premier League. In 2008, the club was on the brink of insolvency and was to be folded.
With a 17-point penalty and certainty that relegation from League 2 would mean the end, the club appointed player Eddie Howe as manager. The rest, as they say, is history. Howe led the team to promotion from League 2 a season later before leaving for Burnley. He returned to the club and took them up to the Championship and then the Premier League.
In six and half years, AFC Bournemouth had completed the journey from being almost out of business to the land of dreams- the Premier League. The remnants of their small origins are still for all to see because the club still plays at the comparatively tiny Dean Court with a capacity of 10000 fans.
Still neutral's favourites after three seasons because of their history and attractive style of football, Bournemouth are indeed living the dream in some style!
#4 Northampton Town
Northampton Town, unlike some of the other teams on this list, still play in the relatively lower English Football League One (third tier of English football). The Cobblers as they are affectionately known, have had a history generally limited to the lower divisions of the pyramid.
Their highest ever finish was in 1963 when they finished runners-up in the Second Division (now the EFL Championship) and spent just one season in the top-flight in their entire history. But the story we are going to talk about is just three seasons old. Northampton Town were up and down between League One and Two and were plateauing in the fourth tier.
Their stadium -- the Sixfields Stadium -- drew decent numbers but the club were facing tremendous financial difficulties. After having a ground-share agreement for a season with Coventry City, Northampton went back to the league in mediocre form.
Chris Wilder was appointed to the Cobblers hotseat in 2014. In the same year, the Customs and Revenues Department of the United Kingdom began to press charges over unpaid taxes and issued a wind-up notice.
The club was bankrupt and the players and management were not being paid wages. There seemed to be no hope for the club and fans were outraged at the state their club was in. The only respite they got and in true fairytale style was the performances on the pitch.
With no money, no wages and a wind-up order all bearing on the side, Northampton Town went up to League One in style under Chris Wilder winning the League Two Championship with games to spare.
The massive audacity that the managers and players showed to demonstrate football and football clubs were more than just money means that this is a remarkable tale of achievement.
#3 FC Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt were founded in their current incarnation in only 2005. The club or at least a club had existed from the area from 1963. Founded as ESV Ingolstadt, the club failed to reach the Bundesliga.
The other club from Ingolstadt -- MTV Ingolstadt -- never truly awoke the passion of the supporters and existed until 2004. The club's success was limited and they never truly got going. Finally, FC Ingolstadt was founded in 2004 when the clubs merged into FC Ingolstadt 04.
The club from Bavaria finished fourth in the Oberliga Bavaria or the Regional Championship in its first season. The side rose through the leagues in style managing to sign some exciting youngsters and managers including Ralph Hassenhutl.
In 2014-15, just ten seasons after they were founded, FC Ingolstadt 04 won the Zweite Liga, the German second tier, and gained promotion to the Bundesliga. Though they lasted only two seasons at the top of the pyramid, it is an incredible achievement for a side in just ten years.
#2 Benevento Calcio
The original Benevento was founded in 1929 and they reached in Serie C fairly quickly. Despite performing well they never really went beyond being a solid outfit in the Italian third tier.
For 76 years, Benevento Calcio never saw the light of progress as a football team. Their teams repeatedly failed to make their presence be counted and the finances were most fragile. All of these factors combined to put the club out of business in 2005.
The Italian club, now known as Benevento Calcio, finally emerged to be on a path to progress when they won the Serie C2 in 2007-08 just two years after the refounding. A few years later the club solidified it's base and made a leap for Serie B.
In 2016-17, the club finished in the dizzying heights of 5th place in the Italian Serie B. This gave the club an opportunity to enter the playoffs for promotion, which they won and gained entry to the Serie A for the first time in their history.
A story which had taken 76 years but had been unsuccessful was now completed in 10 years. Though their season hasn't started very well, credit is due to the management of the club for believing that a club like Benevento could climb the walls of progress so quickly.
#1 TSG Hoffenheim
A village side playing in the Bundesliga sounds like a crazy idea but that is exactly what Hoffenheim are - a village side that probably has no business challenging for Europe and hiring one of the best managerial talents in the country.
Hoffenheim have always been a decent football team for their level and this reflected in the 1990s when the tiny club steadily moved from the Baden-Württemberg A-Liga (the 8th division) to the Verbandsliga Nordbaden (6th division) in 2000.
That was when help came to them in the form of boyhood fan Dietmar Hopp, a software industry rooted businessman who wanted to invest in the club. This interest from Hopp took the club in an entirely unimaginable direction.
His investment paid off as the club rose to the Regionalliga Sud or the third level of the pyramid. The club had a famous DFB-Pokal run knocking out Bayer Leverkusen in 2003-04. Hopp decided to bring in newer and higher investment and he negotiated across his contacts and invested in bringing in experienced coaching staff into the club.
In 2008, the club was promoted to the Bundesliga where they have remained since. Despite having a local population of just 3,300 people Hoffenheim have stretched themselves cleverly with sound investment from a local fan and careful and sustainable spending.
There has been criticism for the financial backing that Hoffenheim have received during their rise from Hopp but nothing can colour over the fact that a village side is now a European club in Germany.
