Bayer Leverkusen

Origins and early years

On 27 November 1903, Wilhelm Hauschild wrote a letter – signed by 180 of his fellow workers – to his employer, the Friedrich Bayer and Co., seeking the company's support in starting a sports club. The company agreed to support the initiative, and on 1 July 1904 Turn- und Spielverein Bayer 04 Leverkusen was founded as a works team. On 31 May 1907, a separate football department was formed within the club. In the culture of sports in Germany at the time, there was significant animosity between gymnasts and other types of athletes.^[] Eventually this contributed to a split within the club: on 8 June 1928, the footballers formed a separate association – Sportvereinigung Bayer 04 Leverkusen – that also included the handball and fistball players, athletics, and boxing, while the gymnasts carried on as TuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen. SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen took with them the club's traditional colours of red and black, with the gymnasts adopting blue and yellow.

Through this period, and into the 1930s, SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen played third and fourth division football. In 1936, they earned promotion to the second highest class of play of the period. That was also the year that the club wore the "Bayer" cross, still visible on their kits, for the first time. They made their first appearance in upper league play in 1951, in the Oberliga West and played there until 1956, after which they were relegated.

SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen would not return to the upper leagues until 1962, just one season before the formation of Germany's new professional league, the Bundesliga. The next year saw the club in the Regionalliga West, tier II, where their performances over the next few seasons left them well down^[] the league table.

2. Bundesliga to Bundesliga, UEFA Cup, and DFB-Pokal

SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen made something of a breakthrough in 1968 by winning the division title, but was unable to advance to the playoff round to the first division. The club was relegated again in 1973, but made a quick return to what was now called the 2. Bundesliga after just one season spent in the third division. Four years later, the club secured a place in the Bundesliga to start to play there in the 1979–80 season.

By the mid-1980s, SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen had become established in the upper half of the league table and was well-established there by the end of the decade. It was during this time, in 1984, that the two halves of the club that had parted ways over a half century earlier were re-united as TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen e.V. The new club took red and white as its colours.

In addition to becoming an established Bundesliga side, the club earned its first honours with a win in the 1988 UEFA Cup. Down 0–3 to Espanyol after the first leg of the final, Bayer Leverkusen drew even in the return match and then won the title on penalty kicks, 3–2.

That same year, long-time Bayer Leverkusen executive Reiner Calmund became the general manager of the club. The decade and a half following this saw club's greatest successes.

After the German reunification in 1990, Reiner Calmund was quick to sign prominent East German players Ulf Kirsten, Andreas Thom and Jens Melzig. The three players would become instant crowd favourites,^[] and make significant contributions to the team.^[] Calmund also established contacts in Brazilian football, befriending Juan Figer, one of Brazil's most powerful player agents.^[] Over the next few^[] years, budding superstars,^[] such as Jorginho and Paulo Sérgio, joined the team, as did Czech star^[] Pavel Hapal. The club also signed charismatic^[] players, such as Bernd Schuster, and Rudi Völler, helping to ensure the team's popularity^[] and growing success.

• 1923–1928
• 1928–1938
• 1948–1965
• 1965–1970
• 1970–1976
• 1976–1984
• 1984–1990
• 1990–1996
• Since 1996

The club won its next major honour in 1993 with a 1–0 win in the DFB-Pokal final against Hertha BSC second team (amateur squad) on 12 June 1993. In the following season, in a game in which Schuster scored a 45 m "German Goal of the Year" (a goal which was later also named "Goal of the Decade"), Bayer played Eintracht Frankfurt early in the season, and, as both a "tip of the hat" to its own history as well as an attempt to perhaps^[] upset the Frankfurt team, Bayer played in its new third colours, which were old-fashioned red and black stripes, similar jerseys to those Frankfurt generally^[] wore at the time.^[] This proved so popular with the fans that, very shortly thereafter,^[] the team reverted to its "retro" colours of red and black, colours used on all home jerseys ever since.

After a near disaster^[] in 1996 when the club faced a relegation battle, Bayer Leverkusen established itself as a powerful^[] side, offering a technically pleasing^[] offensive style of play under new coach Christoph Daum, who was also helped by the signing of players such as Lúcio, Emerson, Zé Roberto and Michael Ballack. Daum was later to be famously^[] fired for a cocaine scandal that also cost him his ascent to the role of the Germany national team coach.^[]

The Nearly Men

The team earned a series of four second-place finishes from 1997 to 2002. The finishes of 2000 and 2002 were heart-breaking for supporters, as on both occasions the team had the Bundesliga title within its grasp. In 2000, Bayer Leverkusen needed only a draw against SpVgg Unterhaching to win the title, but an own goal by Michael Ballack helped send the team to a crushing 2–0 defeat, while Bayern Munich won the title with a 3–1 victory over Werder Bremen. Two years later, the club surrendered a five-point lead atop the league table by losing two of its last three matches, while Borussia Dortmund swept ahead^[] with three consecutive victories in its final matches. The 2002 season has been dubbed^[] the "Treble Horror", as Bayer Leverkusen were also beaten 4–2 in the DFB-Pokal final by Schalke 04 and lost the UEFA Champions League final 2–1 to Real Madrid, which also led to some of the English-language media dubbing them "Neverkusen". Leverkusen was the first team to reach the final of the Champions League without ever having won a national championship. In addition, five members of the Bayer Leverkusen team were also members of the Germany national team which lost the final of the World Cup of 2002.

Subsequent years

In the 2002 off-season, the team sold midfielders Michael Ballack and Zé Roberto to Bayern Munich. Klaus Toppmöller, who had coached the team during its most successful year, was replaced by the Thomas Hörster.^[] Klaus Augenthaler managed the last two games of the season with a win over his previous club, 1. FC Nürnberg.^[] Bayer Leverkusen finished at a third-place finish and a Champions League place the following year.

That following season's run in the Champions League saw the club open its group stage campaign with a 3–0 win against Real Madrid a result which helped Leverkusen to win the group. Leverkusen, however, was defeated in the first knockout round by eventual champions Liverpool. The club finished sixth during the 2004–05 season to qualify for the next season's UEFA Cup.

Early in 2005, Augenthaler was fired as manager after the club got off^[] to its worst Bundesliga start in over 20 years, with only one win in its first four league matches and a 0–1 home loss to CSKA Sofia in the first leg of its UEFA Cup match-up. Former Germany national team manager Rudi Völler, who had been named sporting director prior to the season, took charge of five matches as caretaker manager.^[] Michael Skibbe, who was Völler's assistant coach with the national team, was named as his successor in October 2005. Skibbe turned Leverkusen's season around,^[][] and guided the club to a sixth-place finish in 2006, earning another UEFA Cup place, and then repeated that feat with a fifth place Bundesliga finish in 2007.

The 2007–08 season was not a successful one for Leverkusen despite a good start to the season; five out of the last ten league matches were lost to clubs in the lower half of the table.^[] Michael Skibbe was heavily criticised^[] towards the end of the season after he continuously changed his starting line up.^[] Bayer Leverkusen also lost a lot^[] of its support towards the end of the season: in the 1–2 home loss against Hertha BSC, the Leverkusen fans caused much commotion, with fans chanting for the sacking of Skibbe, while some Ultras, who had seen enough,^[] set fire to their jerseys and threw them onto the field. Michael Skibbe was sacked soon thereafter, leaving the club on 21 May 2008, with club officials stating that his departure was due to the team not qualifying for the following season's UEFA Cup group stage.

The 2008–09 season got off to a great start^[] for Bayer Leverkusen under new manager Bruno Labbadia, who the club had acquired from 2. Bundesliga club SpVgg Greuther Fürth. As the season progressed, however, the team secured no wins against top^[] clubs in the Bundesliga. However, Leverkusen reached the DFB-Pokal final on 30 May 2009 in Berlin, but lost the game 0–1 to Werder Bremen. Leverkusen finished the season in ninth place in the Bundesliga table and Labbadia moved to Hamburger SV in June 2009.^[] Shortly thereafter,^[] Leverkusen presented Jupp Heynckes, who had previously managed Bayern Munich after Jürgen Klinsmann's departure, as its new manager. In the 2010–11 season, Bayer Leverkusen finished as runner-up, thus qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 2005. However, Heynckes decided not to extend his contract and left Bayer Leverkusen in the 2011 close season to take over at Bayern Munich for a third time. In the 2012–13 and 2015–16 seasons, Leverkusen finished third with coach Sami Hyypiä and Roger Schmidt respectively, but were knocked out in the round of 16 of the Champions League the following season both times. In the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, Leverkusen reached the quarter-finals for the first time since 2008, but were ultimately^[] knocked out by Inter Milan in a 2–1 loss.

Xabi Alonso era and first ever Bundesliga title

In October 2022, with the club in the relegation zone, Leverkusen appointed Xabi Alonso as head coach in his first senior managerial role; he went on to guide the team to safety and a sixth-placed finish. In 2023–24, Alonso's first full season in charge, Leverkusen achieved significant domestic and European milestones, bolstered by effective squad building and strategic signings including Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka, Jonas Hofmann, Alejandro Grimaldo, and Matej Kovar. By early 2024, they had set a new club record for the longest unbeaten start to a season followed by breaking the Bundesliga record (formerly held by Hamburger SV since the 1982–83 season) for the longest unbeaten run by a club in all competitions with 26 games unbeaten followed by breaking the European record of the European "top 5 leagues" (Bundesliga, Premier League, Primera División, Ligue 1, Serie A) set by Juventus in 2011 and 2012 of 43 cross-competitive compulsory games in a row without defeat. On 14 April 2024, Leverkusen were crowned Bundesliga champions for the first time ever after beating Werder Bremen 5–0, ending Bayern Munich's run of 11 successive league titles. This was the club's first trophy since winning the 1992–93 DFB-Pokal. On 9 May 2024, Leverkusen set a new record for the longest run of matches without a loss in European football history (since the introduction of UEFA club competitions) following a 2–2 draw against Roma in the Europa League; they broke the previous record of 48 set by Benfica between 1963 and 1965. Leverkusen then finished the league season unbeaten, the first club in the Bundesliga to do so. Its unbeaten streak ended in their 52nd game of the season with a 3–0 loss to Atalanta in the Europa League final. They won the 2024 DFB-Pokal final by beating 1. FC Kaiserslautern to win the domestic double.