We know tons of underdog stories in soccer, such as the rise of Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers. However, there are teams that go untold that are just as impressive. While unknown, the historic rise of club Piast Gliwice to a league title in 2019 is an uplifting story about a team who started with nothing and went on to conquer their league.

Polish soccer club Piast Gliwice was founded in 1945 and spent most of its early years in the lower divisions of Polish professional soccer. They were never under the threat of falling into amateur divisions, but they never made a name for themselves either. However, the late 1970s and 1980s were a game-changer for the team. Piast Gliwice would start to draw attention to themselves, making it to 2 Polish Cup finals in that timespan, albeit losing both. The team would also get their closest to the first division in 1987, placing well enough in the second division to make it to a promotion playoff, which they would ultimately lose. However, in the years that followed, the recent upturn would turn into a horrible fall from grace. A huge economic downturn in the front office would result in the soccer team’s astronomical collapse. In just eight years, the team that was fighting for promotion to the first division was now in the seventh division, a full two divisions below the last professional division of Poland. However, in 1995, the club got a fresh start, as a new and more optimistic board took over the team.

Marcin Zemaitis took over as president of the club which was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1995 with a vision to turn the team around with the help of an entirely new board. His idea was to advertise open tryouts for the team in the local newspaper and have former players Kazimierz Gontarewicz and Leszek Dunajczyk coach the team. Over 100 players of all ages showed up to try out for the 1997 season, and 20 players were selected to compete in that year. The revamped team immediately began on a high note, defeating Znicz Poniszowice 4-0 to start the season and never looking back. In just six years Piast would be promoted five times, back to the league they started in.

The story could have ended there, however in the 2007/08 season, Piast would catch a stroke of luck, as Ekstraklasa (the Polish first division) teams, Korona Kielce and Zaglebie Lubin would be relegated to the second division due to corruption scandals. This meant that in addition to the two automatic promotion spots, there were two additional automatic promotion spots for the third and fourth place teams. This happened to fall perfectly when the team was having a great run of form, on a 22-game undefeated streak in the middle of the season lasting from August to April. However, despite the unreal streak for most of the season, a loss against the tenth place Jaztrzebe put their promotion in jeopardy, with Piast only holding on to the fourth place spot by a tiebreaker of head-to-head games. However, a win against Polonia Warsaw would see Piast Gliwice heading to the Ekstraklasa for the first time in their 61-year history.

While it was a huge achievement to make it to the top flight, Piast wouldn’t stay there for long. The team would have a solid tenth place finish in their debut season but a dead-last finish would see Gliwice being relegated back to the second division in 2010. However, just two years later, the 2011/12 season would see a blistering attack propelling Piast to the first-place spot in the league. In the second to last matchday, the team would have the opportunity to secure promotion back to the top flight with a win against fourth place Kolejarz. Piast Gliwice would ultimately win the game and the next matchday clinched the second division title.

The next few seasons would be extremely volatile. Piast would surprise everyone with a fourth place finish in their debut season, but would then place twelfth and thirteenth place out of 16 in 2014 and 2015 respectively. However in 2016, the team would out of nowhere be in a title race. They would closely trail first-place Legia Warszawa for most of the season, but despite the efforts of the Piast squad, a second place finish was the best they could manage.

While the second-place finisher might have been a surprise to the fans of the Ekstraklasa, the first-place finisher was not surprising. In fact, it was almost expected. First place Legia Warsaw had won the 2013 and 2014 championships, and won them by a big margin after 2016 Legia’s presence would stay the same, with them winning the next 2 leagues, but the same could not be said about the team 200 miles away. Piast would fall to an underwhelming tenth place the next season, but the 2017/18 season would be even worse. From the start of the season, the squad would be fighting relegation. At the end of the season, multiple teams would be fighting to stay up. Piast would originally be in a spot above the relegation zone, but three straight losses would put them in a must-win game on the final day against Bruk-Bet Termalica Niecieza, who sat one point above the relegation zone. If they won, Gliwice would stay up, but if they lost or even tied, they would be relegated down to the I Liga for the second time. However, the final day would have a different result than the one eight years earlier; Piast would win 4-0 and stay in the top flight.

In the following transfer window, the board knew that they had to do something to keep their place in the Ekstraklasa, and in that season they decided to splurge, making a record transfer signing for the club. However, this wasn’t just the most expensive in the club's history, it was twice the amount of the previous record. The signing would be a 26-year-old Jakub Czerwinski, a defender who previously played for the formidable Legia Warsaw. He showed lots of promise on the Legia backline and his performance was enough to convince the Piast Gliwice board to break the transfer record to get him in an attempt to rescue the team. The new record transfer fee? A whopping $250,000.

To say that this price tag paled in comparison to other clubs would be an understatement. This would be just the 8th biggest signing for an Ekstraklasa team that summer. However, while this move wasn’t very big in the grand scheme of the Ekstraklasa, the move would have a big impact on the defense. Czerwinski would be an immediate starter and would go on to play every minute of the season in an attempt to fix the mediocre defense. The turnaround in the roster would be very noticeable, as the team ended up at the third place spot going into the final six games of the season, the team was on a roll and determined to make a further push to the Ekstraklasa trophy. However, they still had a ways to go.

While Gliwice was on a great streak, the league leaders would barely give the team any chance to work their way up the table. While Piast only lost one of their last nine games, Lechia Gdansk and Legia Warsaw, the two teams fighting for the title, would have similar runs of dominance seven points (two wins and one draw) behind both of them after the thirtieth week. There was little confidence in Gliwice to place any better than third but Piast would stake their claim for the trophy, winning the next three games, putting them one point behind second place Lechia Gdansk, and four points behind first place Legia Warsaw. This would set up a crucial match in Warsaw where a win would mean the separation between Piast and first place would be just a singular point. If Gliwice lost the game, they would be all but out of the title race, down seven points to Legia Warsaw with three games left. However, if they won, the seemingly improbable title would be more than in reach for the club. A goal from midfielder Gerard Badia would be enough for the win Piast would leave Warsaw with a crucial three points under their belt. and would claw their way back from seven points of first place to just a single point off first after the thirty-fourth week of the season. Just a day later, Gliwice would get another big advantage in the race as then fifth place Cracovia would defeat Lechia Gdańsk 2-0. This result would put Piast in second place in the table over Lechia Gdansk, furthering their title hopes.

Going into the final three games the race for the title was as close as it could be, with the top three teams all being a game or less between each other. Legia led the league by a point, with Gliwice right behind them and Gdansk two points behind Piast. In the thirty-fifth week of the Ekstraklasa, Piast Gliwice would face Jagellonia Bialystok at home. Piast would end up getting a huge opportunity this week as both Warsaw and Gdansk would drop points, tying their respective games 1-1, which would mean if the team defeated Bialystok, they would be at the top of the league. Piast would score just before halftime and hold onto that lead for 41 minutes until Gliwice would give up a penalty and Jagellonia would capitalize, tying the game. However, Piast would score just two minutes later and would hold onto the lead despite giving up a second penalty to move to the top of the league.

The next week would see Lechia Gdansk and Legia Warsaw lose their games and Piast, who with a win that week would have clinched the title, only managed a draw. While the opportunity for a title win that week was squandered, this match still would have big implications. Piast would move another point past Legia Warsaw to extend their lead to two points ahead, but more importantly, Gdansk’s loss that week meant that they were officially out of the title race. This placement would set the scene for the final week of the season. A draw or a loss would mean that Gliwice would have to rely on sixth-place Zaglebie Lubin to prevent Warsaw from winning, but a win against eighth-place Lech Poznan would mean that Piast Gliwice would officially be champions of the Ekstraklasa for the first time in their history.

The final game of the season in Gliwice would start out with the teams trading chances, but in just the twenty-seventh minute, a mistake by Poznan goalkeeper Matus Putnocky would give Piotr Parzysek an open net, which he would score on. The rest of the game would see multiple close chances for Poznan, but none would result in goals. Piast would hold on to the lead, and when the final whistle blew, the historic journey that took 22 years, six promotions, and one second-place finish would be completed. Piast Gliwice had won the Ekstraklasa at last.