From Neverkusen to an unbeaten double: Bayer Leverkusen's long wait
In 2002 Bayer Leverkusen lost the league, the German Cup final and the Champions League final within weeks, earning the mocking nickname Neverkusen. Twenty-two years later the club finally won the Bundesliga, and did it without losing a single match, adding the cup to become Germany's first unbeaten double winners.
The club began with a letter. On 27 November 1903, Wilhelm Hauschild and 180 fellow workers asked their employer, the paint and chemicals firm Friedrich Bayer and Co., to back a sports club, and on 1 July 1904 a works team was born. Footballers soon clashed with gymnasts, and in 1928 they broke away into their own association, keeping the red and black colours. For decades they bounced around the lower divisions, winning the second-tier Regionalliga in 1968 with a squad of just 15 players, before finally reaching the Bundesliga in 1979.
The first trophy came in dramatic fashion. Trailing Espanyol 3–0 after the first leg of the 1988 UEFA Cup final, Leverkusen levelled the tie at home and won on penalties. That same year Reiner Calmund became general manager, opening an era of ambition: he quickly signed East German stars Ulf Kirsten and Andreas Thom after reunification, cultivated Brazilian connections, and landed a German Cup in 1993.
Then came the near misses. Leverkusen finished second four times between 1997 and 2002. In 2000 a draw at Unterhaching would have secured the title, but a Michael Ballack own goal helped condemn them to a 2–0 loss while Bayern Munich won theirs. In 2002 they squandered a five-point lead in the final weeks, lost the cup final 4–2 to Schalke and fell 2–1 to Real Madrid in the Champions League final, becoming the first club to reach that final without ever having been national champions. The season went down as the Treble Horror.
The redemption, in 2023–24, was total. After more than 30 years without silverware, Leverkusen won the Bundesliga and the German Cup without defeat, and their run of 51 competitive matches unbeaten set a European record. The old taunt has since been turned around into Neverlusen.
Source: Bayer 04 Leverkusen
