But Leicester's squad of freebies and unknown imports have shocked the football world with their Premier League triumph, becoming household names and fully fledged international stars along the way. These are the stories of the 14 key players from a team that cost less than £30m.
Schmeichel started his career as a Manchester City trainee. He made his senior debut on loan at Darlington in 2006 and was also loaned to Bury and Falkirk before making his debut for the Blues.
He played just three games for City in the whole of 2008 and was so far down the pecking order in January 2009 his agent enlisted the help of BBC Sport's Chris Bevan to get him a move, via our BBC transfer deadline day live text commentary.
Schmeichel issued a statement expressing his "great disappointment" when Leeds accepted Leicester's offer for him in June 2011.
We don't think he regrets that now...
Manchester United academy product Simpson was sent out on loan to Belgian side Royal Antwerp and Sunderland, where he won the Championship title in 2007, plus he had spells at Ipswich Town and Blackburn Rovers.
He eventually made his Premier League and European debut at Old Trafford before he joined Newcastle United in 2010. He helped the Magpies win promotion back to the Premier League and also won promotion via the play-offs after his move to QPR.
In 2014 he signed for Leicester and is now a Premier League champion. He was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend last May - a conviction he is appealing against.
The 30-year-old had been persuaded to join the Foxes by then manager Nigel Pearson, who was sacked in June. Fuchs said he was lying on a beach in Antigua when he was told Pearson had been sacked. "I'd spoken to a coach, he'd convinced me to go there, and I will never have one training session with him. It was very weird."
Fuchs has 46,000 followers on Twitter, whom he entertains with his dressing room insights and games such as Russian egg roulette with team-mate Jamie Vardy.
The Jamaica international was released by Notts County in 2000 and signed for Dunkirk FC in the Midland Football Alliance, while enrolling on a course to become an accountant, before Nottingham Forest spotted him.
Leicester signed Morgan for about £1m in January 2012. He had already made 379 appearances for Forest, including 123 in League One.
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Morgan owns a chain of tattoo parlours in Leicester, with former youth team-mate Scott Tynan. Their regular clients include team-mates Jeffrey Schlupp and Fuchs.
But Morgan's talents do not extend to the actual tattooing. He said: "I tried it once on pigskin. It was a terrible effort. I was just trying to draw a smiley face but it looked more like a letter C."
Claudio Ranieri first brought Huth to England from Germany in 2001, signing him for Chelsea where he won two Premier League titles.
He moved to Middlesbrough for £6m in 2006 but was relegated to the Championship two years later, before joining Stoke where he was voted player of the year.
After a loan spell with Leicester, the defender - capped 19 times by Germany - signed permanently in June 2015 and tweeted: "Now the sexy football show rolls into Leicester!!"
Some of the players who have also won three Premier League titles include Dennis Bergkamp, Cristiano Ronaldo, Patrick Vieira, Ashley Cole, Carlos Tevez and Jonny Evans.
Kante made his professional debut in the second tier of French football with Boulogne in 2011. Following relegation he impressed in the third tier the following year and was picked up by Caen in 2013. With them he played all 38 games of the season and missed just one match in the following campaign.
Kante was much smaller than the players around him at youth level and struggled to find a team to take him on, arriving at Boulogne thanks to a connection with the president of Suresnes, the amateur club he played for growing up.
He has been praised for his work-rate in midfield, interceptions and tackling - and has been given the nickname 'The Rash' by team-mate Danny Drinkwater for his aggressive persistence.
Drinkwater was another player who started his career at Manchester United, joining the academy as a nine-year-old. He was part of the United Under-18 side that reached the FA Youth Cup final in 2007, but lost to Liverpool on penalties.
Drinkwater left the Altrincham College of Arts in Cheshire with nine GCSEs.
The 26-year-old was loaned out to Huddersfield, Cardiff, Watford, Barnsley, but never made his senior debut for United.
He joined Leicester in 2012, helping them win promotion to the Premier League in 2014 and was named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year that season.
Albrighton had been with Villa since the age of eight, making his competitive debut in the Uefa Cup game at CSKA Moscow on 26 February 2009.
The winger made his first Premier League appearance on 15 August 2009 against Wigan Athletic, a club he would later be loaned out to in 2013.
Albrighton, who joined Leicester in May 2014 after being released by Villa, has represented England at under-20 and under-21 level.
The slight but talented forward was born in the tough Parisian suburb of Sarcelles and lost his father, Ahmed, to a heart attack at the age of 15.
He first club was AAS Sarcelles before he moved Quimper in 2009, just over 350 miles from Paris.
Mahrez spent his first six months in their second team before gradually making his way through the ranks. He lived with Mathias Pogba, brother of Juventus star Paul Pogba, who described him as too skinny, messy and said he enjoyed a diet of steak and French fries.
Apparently, as recently as 2010, Mahrez did not know how to take a throw-in properly. And, like his Leicester team-mate Jamie Vardy, the winger had to overcome concerns about his size.
But he has gone on to become the first African to be named PFA Player of the Year, with 17 goals and 11 assists.
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During a four-year spell in Germany he became the leading Japanese goalscorer in the league's history, adding 27 with Mainz to 10 for Stuttgart.
He puts his goalscoring form down to discovering fish and chips while at Leicester.
"I like fish and chips!" Okazaki said. "I have them sometimes, maybe once every two weeks, then I am happy. Now when I have scored I want some fish and chips. It is better than pizza."
After being arrested for assault, Vardy had to wear an ankle tag when he was with Stocksbridge Park Steels. He was not allowed to be out outdoors after 6pm, and at away matches could only play one hour to get back in time. He was 20 and earning £30 a week at the time.
At Fleetwood he scored 31 goals as the team were promoted to the Football League for the first time.
He joined Leicester in 2012 for a record fee for a non-league player of £1m (rising to £1.5m) after impressing Pearson and also former West Brom and current England manager Roy Hodgson.
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The 2015-16 season started on a low point for Vardy as he was fined by the club after claims he made a racial slur in a casino.
In November became the first player to score in 11 consecutive Premier League matches and signed a new three-year deal in February.
When he was in Year 10 at Oakgrove School, his designs for a new garden on the grounds were made into reality. It wasn't all his own work though - Max Crowcombe, the Oxford United goalkeeper, also contributed.
Schlupp spent three weeks on trial at Manchester United in 2013.
The 29-year-old earned a then club-record £8m move to Leicester in 2014 after scoring 26 goals in 58 appearances for Brighton in the Championship.
He has never played international football and turned down the chance to represent Chile, for whom he is eligible through his grandparents.
He is the all-time highest-scoring midfielder in the club's 132-year history.
When the Foxes won the Championship in 2014, he tweeted: "So the best weekend of my life comes to a close... what a few days... we finally did it!!"
How is he feeling now?
The 64-year-old took over at Chelsea in 2000, bringing in players such as club legend Frank Lampard.
He was manager when Chelsea were taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003, and spent £120m on players. He was nicknamed 'The Tinkerman' for over-rotating his squad.
Ranieri was sacked in 2004 and replaced by Jose Mourinho.
Ranieri has become a cult hero at Leicester with his man-management, giving players pizza and his unique take on things, as he led the team to the most unexpected league title in history.
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They were a team of cast-offs and bargain buys written off before the season had started, led by a manager who had been sacked in five of his previous jobs.