Economic growth within football over the past 30 years has meant bigger divides than ever between the Liverpools and the Luton Towns of the world.

Spawning out of this; the modern underdog – financially disadvantaged compared to the big hitters and therefore with lesser talent to call upon.

Loved by football hipsters and ardent supporters alike, here are VAVEL USA’s top five overachievers in domestic European leagues this season, and how the rest of their campaign might go.

AFC Bournemouth – 7th in the Premier League

Like fellow dark horses Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth have been the Premier League’s bogey team this season – but with a fraction of the spending compared to their Midlands opponents.

A combination of certain players coming of age – Justin Kluivert – and younger talents taking a step up – Dango Ouattara, and Antoine Semenyo – has led the Cherries to a seventh-place position in the league, and only four points off of the previously mentioned Forest in third.

Kluivert currently has 15 goal involvements (11 goals, four assists) in 22 games, while being supported in terms of scoring exploits by both Semenyo (seven) and Ouattara (six).

Manager Andoni Iraola, who took charge of the club last season, has instilled a fast-paced and transitional mindset in the team that has certainly paid off.

Europe will be the aim for Bournemouth. Right now they look to be in a great position to get just that, especially if other non-top six high flyers like Forest and Newcastle drop off.

End of season prediction: 6th, Europa League

Mainz 05 – 6th in the Bundesliga

In only 19 games, Rheinland-Pfalz based club Mainz 05 are only three points off their entire points tally in 2023/24 – in 15 fewer games.

Danish coach Bo Henriksen has steered die Nullfünfer from the brink of relegation all the way up to the top half of the table in just under a year.

Promising striker Jonathan Burkhardt, who made his international debut for Germany last October, has netted 12 goals so far and has an impressive goalscoring rate of one goal every 95 minutes. Experienced veteran Robin Zentner has been a safe pair of hands in the net, in what now is his sixth season as first-choice keeper for the club.

A back-three partnership of a duel-winning Dominik Kohr, intelligent Stefan Bell, and ex-wingback Danny da Costa has led to Mainz only letting in 23 goals in the league so far – third lowest in the Bundesliga. At 30, 33, and 31 respectively, their backline is not getting any younger, but defenders like Andreas Hanche-Olsen (28) and Maxim Leitsch (26) should be ready to step up if needed.

Big dogs Wolfsburg and both Borussia Mönchengladbach and Dortmund will be hoping to leapfrog Mainz in the coming months. But they are safe from the drop and can certainly look to inspiration from teams like Stuttgart and Union Berlin in past seasons to fuel their continental dream.

“From my first day I realized that the job here is special. You’re not just part of a club, you’re part of a city. You can feel the passion, the pride in the team, the trust and the belief in us in every corner of Mainz.”

Bo Henriksson, on his recent contract extension.

End of season prediction: 9th

Mallorca – 6th in La Liga

An under-the-radar Mallorca side currently occupy the only Conference League spot in La Liga, and they’ve worked hard to get there.

Journeyman striker Cyle Larin leads the line with five goals in the league, and 36-year-old Dani Rodríguez is a creative spark in the midfield with four assists. 

Mallorca have the ninth-least goals conceded in the division, with both captain Antonio Raíllo and ex-Manchester City wing-back Pablo Maffeo being vital in the defensive end.

But a -6 goal difference is not a particularly good sign for a side in the top half, let alone one in the top six. If Mallorca can get experienced striker Vedat Muriqi back to the form seen in previous seasons, maybe the Kosovar can guide them to a few unexpected wins. But currently, he is on three goals and does not look to be reaching the tally of 15 he recorded three years ago.

A tight mid-table in La Liga means that despite their current position, Los Piratas are only ten points in front of 18th-placed Espanyol. Similar to Mainz, traditional top clubs linger behind the islanders – in this case Real Sociedad, Sevilla, and Real Bétis. 

Hopefully, coach Jagoba Arrasate can muster up some good form to keep top-half dreams alive, but with all of Mallorca’s last four results being losses – including a defeat in the cup to fourth-tier Pontevedra – the good times might be behind them.

End of season prediction: 13th

Santa Clara – 5th in the Primeira Liga

A good start can be crucial for a smaller side to excel past onlookers’ expectations.

That is certainly the case for Azores Islands-based Santa Clara, who won nine out of their first 13 games in the Portuguese league after winning promotion from the second tier this summer.

A 1-0 win versus Sporting has been the highlight of their season so far, with the man who scored the winning goal being Brazilian winger Vinicius Lopes. Lopes, currently 25, has a tally of seven league goals and has been vital at the front end for os Açorianos.

Left-back and fellow Brazilian Matheus Pereira has popped up with four assists, while Pedro Ferreira’s ball-winning abilities in midfield mostly off the bench have been crucial to seeing out games. Center-back Sidney Lima has also shone brightly as one of the three center-backs, while the million-and-a-half euro transfer of Gabriel Silva from Palmeiras seems to have paid off with the 22-year-old having five goals so far.

Vasco Matos, Santa Clara’s boss, is easily a candidate for manager of the year in a bonkers season that has seen 12 coaches either leave or be sacked by their respective clubs.

A solid defensive record and a few big wins under their belt should be enough to keep the high hopes up for this island club, with a decent gap established from the rest of the league minus overachieving counterparts Casa Pia.

End of season prediction: 6th

Samsunspor – 3rd in the Süper Lig

A genuinely astonishing gap separated the top three teams in the Turkish top tier last year. Upon looking at the league table, it read: Galatasaray, first, 102 points. Fenerbahçe, second, 99 points. Trabzonspor, third, 67 points.

That is a mesmerizing gap for the top two teams to establish in any league. Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe are very much in a league of their own, with the third Istanbul club Beşiktaş simply not keeping up and finishing sixth last year.

It is not Beşiktaş who are third this year, having somewhat finally caught up to their rivals. Instead, Samsunspor, a team who have spent five previous seasons in the first division this century, occupy that spot.

Chadian number nine Marius Mouandilmadji, with seven goals so far, is finding his feet after spells in Cameroon, Portugal, and Belgium. €2.5m ($2.6m) record signing Carlo Holse has scored the same amount of goals and chipped in with two assists.

With the joint-least amount of goals conceded in a league of nineteen, it is clear to see that Kırmızı Şimşekler (The Red Lightning) know what they are doing when it comes to keeping goals out of their net.

This is in part down to the brilliant center-back pairing of Rick Van Drongelen and Ľubomír Šatka, as well as goalie Okan Kocuk – who has played every minute in the league so far. But it is also thanks to the disciplined defense that coach Thomas Reis attempts to install in his defenders that has seen this success – a trait Reis also showed during his time managing VfL Bochum.

There is a trend amongst clubs in Europe nowadays, who are not traditionally large clubs yet are always competitive at the top end of the table, including Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium, LASK Linz in Austria, and Brighton in England. If Samsunspor are shrewd with recruitment as they have been since their promotion, they can join that rank.

End of season prediction: 3rd, Europa League