A lot of things have happened in football recently that are hard to believe - we still think that Wayne Bridge KSI thing was some sort of elaborate AI rendering - but last season’s Bundesliga might well be the best.
Before 2024, Bayer Leverkusen were infamous for never having won the league. It was an enormous part of the club’s identity, then Xabi Alonso just went and won it for them, unbeaten. This, told through the words of those who witnessed it first-hand, is the incredible story of how it happened.
This video was adapted from an article that originally appeared in FourFourTwo magazine
Before 2024, Bayer Leverkusen were infamous for never having won the league. It was an enormous part of the club’s identity, then Xabi Alonso just went and won it for them, unbeaten. This, told through the words of those who witnessed it first-hand, is the incredible story of how it happened.
This video was adapted from an article that originally appeared in FourFourTwo magazine
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00:00A lot of things have happened in football recently that are hard to believe. I still
00:07think that Wayne Bridge KSI thing was some sort of elaborate AI rendering for example.
00:12But last season's Bundesliga might well be the best. Before 2024, Bayer Leverkusen were
00:19infamous for never having won the league. So much so that it was an enormous part of
00:24the club's identity, and then Xabi Alonso just went and won it for them, unbeaten.
00:30And this is the quite incredible story of how that happened.
00:34Back in April 2002, Klaus Toppmoller's Leverkusen were five points clear of the Bundesliga summit
00:40with three matches remaining. Only for the unthinkable to happen. A shock 2-1 home defeat
00:46to Werder Bremen, followed by a loss at struggling Nuremberg, saw Leverkusen overhauled by Borussia
00:52Dortmund going into the final day. A talented squad featuring Michael Ballack,
00:57Zé Roberto and a young Dimitar Berbatov had plenty still to play for. Their last three
01:02matches of the season would feature this final day Bundesliga salvage mission against Hertha
01:07Berlin, a DFB Pokal final showdown with Schalke and a Champions League final against Real
01:13Madrid. An incredible treble was still on the cards but what ensued was… how can I
01:20put this… not fun. We actually won our final Bundesliga match but Dortmund also won,
01:27ex-Leverkusen captain Jens Nowotny, who made 293 appearances for the club, tells 442 Now.
01:34It was such a crushing blow after coming so close. We were stunned, causing us to lose
01:39the cup final against Schalke. By then, we were in freefall and gave ourselves little
01:44hope against Real in the Champions League final, so they beat us too.
01:48Even if you're not a Leverkusen fan, you'll remember this one. Zidane, volley, whoosh,
01:53euphoria, etc. The second best goal ever scored at Hampden Park after David Gray's 92nd minute
02:00cup final winner for Hibbs, no ats please. It was just so extremely frustrating though,
02:05according to Nowotny. Not only to lose three titles in three matches but also to deny our
02:10fans, the coaches, the staff and the entire city the opportunity to celebrate together.
02:16That devastating campaign confirmed the club's Neverkusen nickname. Ever the Bridesmaids,
02:22Leverkusen had come second in Germany's top division for the fourth time in just six years.
02:28Meaning that in 98 years of their history, they had lifted just two major trophies,
02:34the UEFA Cup in 1988 beating Espanyol on penalties and the DFB-Pokal in 1993.
02:40That was until this man arrived. When Alonso replaced the dismissed Gerardo Sioane in early
02:472022, they languished in 17th, joint bottom of their Champions League group and out of the cup,
02:53eliminated in the first round by third-tier Elversberg. He quickly installed a back three,
02:59encouraging his players to press high and dominate possession. Having taken just 0.6
03:04points per game in their first eight matches, they improved that to 1.7 under the Spaniard
03:09and sealed a sixth place finish and qualification for the Europa League.
03:13Alonso's prize for this good start was the trust to revamp the squad.
03:17Granit Xhaka, Jens Hoffmann, Nathan Teller, Alex Grimaldo and Victor Boniface all arrived
03:22that summer, funded largely by Moussa Diaby's departure to Aston Villa.
03:26Leverkusen made a blistering start to 23-24, winning their opening three encounters against
03:32Leipzig, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Dramstadt. Few people though expected that run to continue
03:38given their next assignment. Thomas Tuchel's all-conquering reigning champions, the recipients
03:43of the last eleven league titles, who had also won their first three matches.
03:48Naby Munich took an early lead in that game through new signing Harry Kane and,
03:52despite Grimaldo equalising, they eventually went 2-1 in front in the 86th minute.
03:58However, showing a new-found resilience, Leverkusen threw the proverbial Kurschen
04:04at them and won a 94th-minute penalty, midfielder Ezequiel Palacios levelling it at the death.
04:10The Bayern comeback preceded a run of eight consecutive league victories as Leverkusen
04:14topped the standings in late November. Draws against Dortmund and fellow surprise title
04:19challengers Stuttgart preceded a 3-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt and a 4-0
04:24battering of Borschem to crown Leverkusen as Herbstmeister, which I'm 80% sure is how you
04:31say that, the unofficial title given to the league leaders at the winter break.
04:36But it wasn't merely that Leverkusen were winning. They were playing teams off the park with a style
04:41that squeezed the best out of their players. Boniface had registered 25 goal involvements
04:46at the halfway stage, Grimaldo, ostensibly a defender, 16. No midfielder in the Bundesliga
04:52had covered more ground or been more reliable in possession than Granit Xhaka, who Alonso
04:56described as the brain of this team. The jewel in the crown, however, had been 20-year-old
05:02Florian Wurz, a silky playmaker back from an ACL injury and in the Bundesliga top three for assists,
05:08key passes, dribbles and sprints. Their manager made them more than the sum of their parts,
05:13yes, but those parts were looking a lot higher in quality than anybody had realised.
05:18Leverkusen would then take 10 points from their first four Bundesliga matches of 2024.
05:23Their most tantalising showdown came in early February, with Bayern the visitors and just two
05:29points behind the underdogs, this felt like the moment they could wrestle back the title.
05:33But Leverkusen put on a show. 1-0 up after 18 minutes, as soap opera alert, Bayern loanee
05:41Josip Stanisic scored against his parent club, Grimaldo then doubled their lead in the 50th
05:46minute, before Jeremy Frimpong made it 3-0 in stoppage time. Tuchel's juggernauts,
05:52who'd switched to a back three purely to nullify Leverkusen, enjoyed more possession of the ball,
05:57yes, but were outmanoeuvred in almost every other way. Caution, though, would turn to genuine belief
06:03as they won their next seven league matches to make it nine on the bounce. One more win
06:09would not only make it 10 in a row, but end Leverkusen's 120-year wait for German supremacy.
06:16Of course though, because history just has a twisted sense of humour,
06:21next up was Werder Bremen, those shits, again. The narratives wrote themselves.
06:28The day of the game, thousands of fans gathered through the streets with flares,
06:32banners and scarves. There was an excitement in the air but also an unbearable anxiety
06:37over the idea of history repeating itself. Back in 2002, it took just five minutes for
06:43nerves to turn to despair as Bremen got in front. 22 years on, Boniface's 25th-minute penalty paved
06:50the way for a 5-0 rout, Wirtz capping his sensational campaign with a hat-trick that
06:56made a mockery of any pre-match butterflies. Even Schacker, so often an unsung hero in midfield,
07:02got his name on the scoresheet. At full-time, all hell broke loose.
07:07Accounts from various Leverkusen fans to 442 state they'd never experienced a celebration
07:13like that one. Just a feeling of immense relief, happiness. I'd been a ball of tension all week.
07:19Deep down, I was sure we'd do it, but I just needed it to be over. Just thinking about it
07:24still gives me goosebumps. Nowotny, too, drank it all in. It was absolutely crazy to witness,
07:30he told us. There was also a tiny bit of sadness in the back of my mind, though, because
07:34I saw what we could have given to the people of Leverkusen 22 years earlier. I was incredibly
07:40happy that the club had finally laid that ghost to rest, but the thought that we could have sparked
07:44a similar kind of happiness made it feel bittersweet. A beer-drenched Alonso, usually so
07:50composed, could not contain his delight. We have to enjoy and celebrate today with our families,
07:56friends and fans, he said, wiping suds from his eyes. This was my first full season as a coach.
08:01The feeling is amazing. Once the pitch invaders had departed, the celebrations decamped to pubs
08:07and street corners across Leverkusen. Neverkusen was dead, but their job still wasn't done. Their
08:14DFB-Pokal campaign had continued by ways of wins over Stuttgart and Dusseldorf,
08:19teeing up a final against second-tier Kaiserslautern in Berlin. There would be 97th and 96th-minute
08:26equalisers to earn draws against Dortmund and Gladbach respectively before their season was
08:30finished. It made them the first men's team to enjoy an unblemished Bundesliga campaign.
08:37Played 34-1-28, drawn six, lost zero. The Invincibles topped the table on 90 points,
08:44the second-highest in league history, with a 17-point gap to runners-up Stuttgart and
08:5118 to Bayern in third. And now, attention could turn to that treble. First up,
08:56Atalanta in the Europa League final and… finally, their luck did run out. In a rare
09:02tactical misstep, Alonso started with no recognised striker, Wurz playing in an
09:07unfamiliar false nine role, as Atalanta hit them on the break expertly to win 3-0.
09:13After 51 matches unbeaten, now the never-losing finally tasted defeat.
09:19But there was no time to mope, with Kaiserslautern up just three days later at Berlin's Olympus
09:24Stadion. Schalke shot Leverkusen ahead after 16 minutes, and not even a first-half red card
09:29could affect the outcome. An historic double, if not a continental treble, was theirs.
09:36And despite persistent rumours across the summer, Wurz, Grimaldo, Fringpong, Boniface, Palacios,
09:41Tapsoba and, most importantly, Alonso all remain at Leverkusen as the club fight to defend both
09:48its titles and leave its mark in the Champions League. How they'll fare, and how long they'll
09:54stay, remains to be seen, but for 12 glorious months in North Rhine-Westphalia, they changed
10:00a decades-old narrative of hard luck stories into one of football's greatest tales of triumph.