Just a few weeks before celebrating the 120th anniversary of its foundation,
Bayer Leverkusen
, with the contribution of Argentine
Exequiel Palacios
, became
champion this Sunday for the first time in the history of the
Bundesliga
, ending the 11-season reign of
Bayern Munich
and that can still continue adding milestones. The 5-0 win over
Werder Bremen
was final, with an assist from the world champion midfielder with the Argentine National Team and a hat trick from Florian Wirtz.
The fact is that he still aspires to two more crowns (the Europa League and the German Cup) and to close the season undefeated at all levels. The coronation took place with five dates left and with exorbitant numbers: they accumulated 25 wins and 4 draws, with 74 goals for and only 19 against. There is one more milestone: no team managed to become Bundesliga champion undefeated.
What we experienced at the BayArena stadium was a party. From very early on, Leverkusen fans came to enjoy the consecration day, even with a massive caravan that accompanied the team's bus to the entrance to the locker room.
They didn't last until the final whistle either, because they came down from the stands with 10 minutes left and, with the fifth goal, they invaded definitively, causing the match to end inevitably early.
The victory achieved last weekend against
Union Berlin
, with a solitary penalty goal from
Florian Wirtz
, and Bayern's 3-2 defeat against
Heidenheim
had left the team from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia one step away from the title and closer to that record in the
Bundesliga
.
For now,
the 29 appearances without setbacks allowed him to surpass the mark that Bayern Munich had established in the 2013/14 season
, which lost its undefeated record on the 29th round of that campaign against Augsburg. In addition, they have ten consecutive victories in the domestic tournament and seven consecutive victories as a visitor, two streaks that they had never achieved in the Bundesliga. And the 79 points he has already achieved are his best haul in the German first division, in which he has competed uninterruptedly since 1979.
In their previous 44 appearances in the Bundesliga,
Bayer Leverkusen was runner-up five times
. Of them, two were especially painful. In the 1999/2000 season, the team led by
Christoph Daum
and featuring
Michael Ballack
reached the final round as leader and three points ahead, but lost 2-0 to
Unterhaching
and lost the title, by difference of goal, to
Bayern Munich
, who defeated Werder Bremen 3 to 1 on the final day.
He was also very close to the celebration two years later, with Diego Placente on his team: with three dates remaining, he topped the table and was five points ahead of
Borussia Dortmund
. But they lost two consecutive games (against Werder Bremen and Nüremberg) and Dortmund did not fail and took the crown from them. In that season, he also lost the
Champions League
final against
Real Madrid
and the
German Cup
final with Schalke.
The architect of the team that broke the historic drought is
Xabi Alonso
, one of the most coveted coaches in the world these days. The Basque, who until then had only managed the Real Madrid under-14 team and the Real Sociedad reserve team, took charge of the red and black team on October 5, 2022, replacing the Swiss
Gerardo Seoane
. At the time, Bayer was second from bottom in the Bundesliga and had been eliminated from the German Cup by
third division side
Elversberg
. In less than eight months, the former Spanish national team player took them from 19th to sixth place, which allowed them to qualify for the
Europa League
.
This season, the team's performance and results were superlative
. This made some European giants such as Real Madrid and Liverpool interested in Alonso (he tempted him in March to replace Jürgen Klopp starting in July). But the coach has already warned that he will stay.
“It doesn't seem like the right time to leave. After a year, we are building a team, we are building a great spirit here. “I am committed and I am really enjoying it
,” he justified.
The success in the Bundesliga also transferred to the Europa League
: after winning their group with an ideal score and eliminating Azeri Qarabağ with great anxiety in the round of 16, Bayer defeated West Ham United 2-0 on Thursday in the Bay Arena in the first leg of one of the keys to the quarterfinals. Goals from
Jonas Hofmann
and
Victor Boniface
in the last seven minutes of play will allow them to travel to London in relative peace to play the rematch next Thursday at the Olympic Stadium in the English capital.
“It's a good result, but (the series) is not over. Next week we will focus on the second leg, from now on we will be fully focused on the game against Bremen. The expectation could not be greater. We have to give everything. One game, three points. That is the clear objective
,” Alonso explained after his team's eighth victory in nine appearances in the continental competition. Four games separate the
Rojinegros
from their second international title: they only won the UEFA Cup in 1988.
Of course, the club that belongs to the pharmaceutical giant of the same name will also play in the final of the German Cup: after eliminating
Teutonia Ottensen
,
Sandhausen
,
Paderborn
,
Stuttgart
and
Fortuna Düsseldorf
, it will face
Kaiserslautern
, which is second to last in the second division, on May 25 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. That duel will offer him the chance to get his second trophy in this tournament (he was champion in 1993).
The combination of positive results in the three tournaments it is competing in allowed Bayer to forge a unique record this season in Europe: it has
43 games without defeats (38 wins and 5 draws)
. The victory against
West Ham United
allowed them to surpass the record of
The New Saints
of Wales, who had accumulated 41 unbeaten games and had seen their streak interrupted on March 24, when they lost 2 to 1 with
Airdrieonians
, from the Scottish second division, in the final of the
Scottish Challenge Cup
, a competition in which two Welsh teams can participate.
A life with Bayer
The history of
Bayer Leverkusen
is unbreakably linked and from its first days to one of the main corporations in the pharmaceutical industry, which was created in 1863 by
Friedrich Bayer
and
Johann Friedrich Westkott
, which has been based in Leverkusen since 1912 and which last year recorded revenues of $53.3 billion.
The club was founded on July 1, 1904 as an institution dedicated to the practice of gymnastics. To build its first facilities, it had the exclusive financial support of
Bayer
, a chemical company that had initially oriented its production to synthetic dyes for fabrics, which had then expanded its horizons to the pharmaceutical industry and which in 1899 had launched its flagship drug: aspirin.
In fact, the first name of the sports institution was T
urn-und Spielverein der Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedrich Bayer & Co. in Leverkusen
(Gymnastics and Sports Club of the Friedrich Bayer & Company Dye Factory of Leverkusen). The football section was incorporated in 1907, but in 1923 it split and founded Football Club 04 Leverkusen, also under the company's wing. In 1935 it added the word "Bayer" to its name and added the company logo to its shield.
The historic link with the pharmaceutical giant has allowed Bayer Leverkusen to avoid compliance with the 50+1 Rule
that applies in the Bundesliga. The rule, approved by the German Football Federation in October 1998, allowed the entry of private capital to the clubs (until then they were non-profit organizations), but established that the partners must retain the majority of the shares with the right to vote of the institution.
However,
the rule provided for an exception
: investors who could demonstrate that they had supported a club “substantially and continuously” for at least 20 years could take majority ownership of a club. This allowed Bayer Leverkusen to remain in the hands of the firm that had driven its foundation.
It is currently one of two clubs in the German first division that benefits from the exception clause of the 50+1 Rule: the other is
Wolfsburg
, owned by the Volkswagen automobile company. Hoffenheim had also joined this regime in July 2015, but in November last year Dietmar Hopp, owner of the software company SAP, transferred the majority of the shares with voting rights to the partners again.
The curious thing is that the club is experiencing one of the best moments in its history, contrary to what is happening with Bayer, which is going through an enormous crisis that forced them to carry out a savings plan and cuts of about 3 billion euros to global level.