Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga champions for the first time: assist from Palacios, victory and a goal still to be reached

A few weeks after the celebration of the 120th anniversary of its foundation, Bayer Leverkusenwith the contribution of the Argentine Exequiel Palacioswas consecrated this Sunday champion for the first time in the history of Bundesligaending 11 seasons of reign of Bayern Monaco and this can still continue to add milestones. It ends 5-0 Werder Bremen Unappealable, with the assist from the world champion midfielder of the Argentine national team and the hat-trick from Florian Wirtz.

The fact is that they still aspire to two more titles (Europa League and German Cup) and to end the season undefeated at all levels. The coronation took place with five dates remaining and with exorbitant numbers: they accumulated 25 wins and 4 draws, with 74 goals for and only 19 against. There is another milestone: no team has managed to become undefeated Bundesliga champions.

What we experienced at the BayArena stadium was a party. From the early hours the Leverkusen fans came to enjoy the day of the consecration, even with a huge caravan that accompanied the team bus to the entrance to the changing rooms.

Not even they resist until the final whistle, because they come down from the stands with 10 minutes to go and, with the fifth goal, they invade definitively, inevitably ending the match early.

The win he got against last weekend Berlin Unionwith a solitary goal from a penalty by Florian Wirtzand Bayern’s 3-2 defeat against Heidenheim he had left the North Rhine-Westphalian team one step away from the title and closer to that record in Bundesliga.

Currently, His 29 appearances without setbacks allowed him to surpass the mark that Bayern Munich had set in the 2013/14 season., who lost their unbeaten record in the 29th round of that season to Augsburg. Furthermore, they have ten consecutive victories in the domestic tournament and seven consecutive victories as guests, two consecutive winning streaks which they had never achieved in the Bundesliga. And the 79 points already obtained represent his best harvest in the German first division, in which he has competed continuously since 1979.

In his 44 previous Bundesliga appearances, Bayer Leverkusen have been runners-up five times. Of them, two were particularly painful. In the 1999/2000 season the team led by Christoph Daum and which he had as a figure Michael Ballack He arrived at the last round as the leader and with a three-point lead, but lost 2-0 Unterhaching and lost the title, on goal difference, to Bayern Monacowho beat Werder Bremen 3 to 1 on the last day.

He was also very close to the celebration two years later, with Diego Placente in the team: with three dates to go he was first in the standings and five points ahead of Borussia Dortmund. But they lost two consecutive games (against Werder Bremen and Nuremberg) and Dortmund did not fail and took the title away from them. In that season they also lost the final of Champions League in view of real Madrid and that of German Cup with Schalke.

The architect of the team that broke the historic drought is Xabi Alonso, one of the most sought-after coaches in the world these days. The Basque, who until then had only coached the under-14s of Real Madrid and the reserve team of Real Sociedad, took over the management of the Rossoneri team from 5 October 2022, replacing the Swiss. Gerardo Seoane. At the time, Bayer were second last in the Bundesliga and had been eliminated from the German Cup Elversberg of the third division. In less than eight months, the former Spanish national team player took him from 19th to sixth place, thus qualifying for the Europa League.

This season the team’s performances and results have been superlative. This made some European giants such as Real Madrid and Liverpool take an interest in Alonso (they had attempted him in March to replace Jürgen Klopp starting in July). But the DT 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’ve put in the work and I’m having a lot of fun.”he justified himself.

The success in the Bundesliga also carried over to the Europa League: After winning their group with an ideal score and anxiously eliminating Azerbaijan’s Qarabağ in the round of 16, Bayer defeated West Ham United 2-0 on Thursday at the Bay Arena in the first leg of a key quarter-final. The objectives of Jonas Hoffmann AND Vittorio Bonifacio in the last seven minutes of the game it will allow him to travel to London in relative tranquility 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 return match, from now on we will be focused exclusively on the match against Bremen. The anticipation couldn’t be higher. We have to give everything. One game, three points. This is the clear objective”, explained Alonso after his team’s eighth victory in nine appearances in the continental competition. Four parties separate the Red and black of their second international title: they won the UEFA Cup only in 1988.

Da yapa, the club which belongs to the pharmaceutical giant of the same name will also play in the German Cup final: after eliminating Teutonia Ottensen, Sandhausen, Paderborn, Stuttgart AND Fortuna Dusseldorfwill be measured with Kaiserslautern, who are second to last in the second division, on May 25 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. That duel will offer him the chance to win his second trophy in this tournament (he was champion in 1993).

The combination of positive results in the three tournaments in which it is participating has allowed Bayer to create a unique brand this season in Europe: sum 43 games without defeat (38 wins and 5 draws). The triumph against West Ham United allowed him to surpass the record of The new saints of Wales, who had accumulated 41 unbeaten matches and had seen the streak interrupted on 24 March, when they lost 2 to 1 with Airdrieoniansof the Scottish Second Division, in the final of Scottish Challenge Cupa competition in which two Welsh teams can participate.

A life with Bayer

The story of Bayer Leverkusen has been inextricably linked since its early days to one of the main companies in the pharmaceutical industry, created in 1863 by Federico Bayer AND Johann Friedrich Westkottwhich has been based in Leverkusen since 1912 and had sales of $53.3 billion last year.

The club was founded on July 1, 1904 as an institution dedicated to the practice of gymnastics. To build its first plants it had the exclusive financial support of Bayerchemical company that initially concentrated its production on synthetic dyes for fabrics, which then broadened its horizons to the pharmaceutical industry and which in 1899 launched its flagship drug on the market: aspirin.

In fact the first name of the sports institution was Turn-und Spielverein der Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedrich Bayer & Co. in Leverkusen (Gymnastics and Sports Club of the Friedrich Bayer & Company Dye Factory in Leverkusen). The football section was formed in 1907, but in 1923 it split and founded Football Club 04 Leverkusen, also under the wing of the club. In 1935 he added the word “Bayer” to his name and the company logo to his coat of arms.

The historical link with the pharmaceutical giant has allowed Bayer Leverkusen to avoid compliance with the 50+1 rule which applies in the Bundesliga. The rule, approved by the German Football Association in October 1998, allowed the entry of private capital into the clubs (until then they were non-profit organizations), but stipulated that members had to retain the majority of voting shares 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 company that had led its foundation.

It is currently one of two clubs in the German top division to benefit from the exception clause of the 50+1 rule: the other is Wolfsburg, owned by the car manufacturer Volkswagen. 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 voting shares back to the shareholders.

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 a huge crisis that has forced it to implement a savings and cuts plan for around 3 billion euros at the global level.