Leicester's legend is still fresh in our minds, with Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen once again playing out a football fairy tale.
Behind the victory of the "pharmaceutical factory", it is not only a cool story of "counterattack", but also the business philosophy of a club.
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Text / Yang Yumeng
Editor / Guo Yang
With Wirtz completing his hat-trick and Bayer Leverkusen's 5-0 home win over Werder Bremen, the Leverkusen man burst onto the pitch and tens of thousands of fans began to celebrate the dream moment.
Winning the championship five rounds ahead of schedule, Bayer Leverkusen not only broke Bayern's monopoly on the Bundesliga championship for 11 consecutive years and became the first league champion of the five major leagues, but also the first Bundesliga championship in the 120-year history of Leverkusen FC since its establishment in 1904. With a population of less than 170,000, it is also the least populous city to win the league title in the top five leagues after Monaco (2016/17).
Behind this fairytale story is the pain and suffering that this team has experienced in the past.
The birth of the "Famous Runner-up".
On July 1, 1904, the Bayer Group founded the Bayer 04 Leverkusen Sports Club, and the football club was declared independent, affectionately known as the "Pharmaceutical Factory" by the fans due to the well-known pharmaceutical company of the parent company.
However, for a long time after the club's birth, the team struggled in the amateur league until 1975, when it was promoted to the professional Bundesliga, and although promoted to the Bundesliga in 1979, Bayer Leverkusen became the famous "runner-up harvester" in European football in the following decades.
Looking back at the team's history, Bayer Leverkusen have only won two major trophies: the UEFA Cup in 1987-88 and the German Cup in 1992-93.
In particular, in the 1999-00 season, Pharma had the closest thing to a Bundesliga salad plate in team history. The team led the table all the way to the top of the table, with only a last-round win over promoted Maonte Tharchen to win the title, but key player Ballack scored an own goal in the opening 20 minutes and the team was also snatched away by Bayern Munich on goal difference after this unexpected defeat.
Subsequently, in the 01-02 season, Bayer Leverkusen made great progress on all fronts, and was also known as the best team in team history at that time, but in the end, the team was blocked three times in the Bundesliga, German Cup, and Champions League. In the end, people not only remembered Zidane's famous "flying immortal" goal, but also made Leverkusen swallow the bitter fruit of "Sanya King".
Source: 442
According to statistics, in the past 31 years without a championship, the pharmaceutical company has won 10 runner-up titles, and some opponents have changed the team name Leverkusen to "Vizekusen" and "Neverkusen", mocking them that they will never win the championship.
From the penultimate to the undefeated champion, Alonso is the "God of Medicine"
In the past 22 years, with the exception of veteran coach Heynckes, who won the league runner-up again in 2010-11, Bayer Leverkusen has not performed much in the domestic and continental arenas.
In addition, since the departure of coach Heynckes in 2011, Bayer Leverkusen has fallen into a rhythm of successive coaches, and has gone through 10 managers so far.
Until last season, Bayer Leverkusen started on a low start, losing seven games two months later, finishing second from bottom in the league and bottom of the Champions League group, and then-coach Sewane was sacked.
Surprisingly, instead of choosing an experienced "relegation master" to fight the fire, like ordinary teams, the pharmaceutical company chose a rookie coach with no first-team coaching experience - Xavi Alonso.
As a player, he was naturally a legend, winning almost every title he could with Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and the Spanish national team.
Shortly after retiring, Alonso chose to return to Real Madrid after getting his coaching certificate, and became the coach of the Under-14 team for a year. A year later, he received an offer from his parent club Real Sociedad to coach the B team, during which time the B team put on a wave of spectacular statistics in La Liga, but the team was unfortunately relegated because the players were too young.
But for Alonso, this coaching experience also gave him the thinking and experience of coaching a complete team. On this basis, it is reasonable for him to take over the troubled pharmaceutical factory.
The brutality of the professional league still gave Alonso a blow to the head - Bayer Leverkusen did not bounce back quickly after the new official took over, winning on his debut, but then suffered a six-game winless run, and fell back into the relegation zone after the winter break.
However, let's not forget that Brother Long is an iron-blooded Basque who has also experienced the great reversal of Istanbul. After adjusting its tactics, Long's Pharmaceutical ushered in a change, and finally returned to the European zone of the Bundesliga standings with a wave of 14 games unbeaten.
Before this season, many people predicted that Bayern's biggest rival for the Bundesliga title would be Bayer Leverkusen, and Alonso was the most direct reason.
As it is, Alonso's side have been unbeaten on three fronts since entering the season, unbeaten in 43 games in all competitions, tying the all-time record of the five major leagues, including 29 league games, 25 wins and 4 draws, and 123 goals in all competitions.
For Bayer Leverkusen, their magical journey this season is far from over, and they are expected to achieve the "treble" of the Bundesliga, German Cup and Europa League at the end of the season.
In the Jin Yuan era, Leverkusen's persistence
Leverkusen's championship is naturally wonderful, and behind this, the team adheres to a healthy operation strategy and business philosophy, which is more worthy of thinking and learning from the industry.
As a "corporate team", Bayer Leverkusen does not need to follow the "50+1 rule" like other Bundesliga teams, but the pharmaceutical company does not rely on the parent company's large blood transfusion like the familiar "Chinese Super League real estate team", but swishs.
The team adheres to the philosophy of small capital, and almost never has a large number of signings, the most expensive signing in the team's history is the German midfielder Demirbay who was brought in from Hoffenheim in the 19-20 season, which cost 32 million euros, and the left-back Grimaldo, who has performed well this season, is free to sign.
In the eyes of many fans, the reason for Bayer Leverkusen's lack of strong team temperament is the loss of talent over the years: Ballack, Vidal, Kroos, Carvajal, Schurrle, Emre Can, Son Heung-min, Kai Havertz and other players have all played for this team.
The star players who played here and eventually moved away, making the pharmaceutical company more like an "academy" for developing talent for strong teams, a famous "stepping stone" team.
However, looking back, Leverkusen has cultivated so many outstanding players, which not only represents the team's excellent youth blood-forming ability, but also the team's long history and heritage, which is also one of the reasons why it can counterattack and break out, and the arrival of Brother Long has completely inspired all this.
It is worth mentioning that professional people do professional things, which is also the guarantee of Leverkusen's success.
Sporting director Simon Rolfes, who brought Alonso in October last year, revealed that, unlike the likes of Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte, Alonso only brought an assistant coach to the club when he took charge.
In other words, almost all of the team's recruitment strategies were planned by Rolfus. "I'm responsible for the long-term development of the club – the scouting department, the academy, the right coaching staff," he said. By the time Alonso arrived, all of this was already in place. 」
He also believes that the club's long-term goal is not to win the Bundesliga title in any given season, but to compete for the Bundesliga title year after year.
Thanks to the excellent management, Bayer Leverkusen has been at the top of the league for the past few years, and has been able to participate in the Europa League, which has gradually increased its attractiveness and commercial income.
The Telegraph estimates that Leverkusen's total annual revenue is around €270 million, with sponsorship revenue exceeding €55 million last season, with the largest single investment coming from Bayer. This season, the club has reached the season ticket sales cap for the first time, and after winning the championship, it is believed that it will bring greater revenue and more business opportunities for the club.
Bayer Leverkusen's title is also a watershed moment for the league as a whole, breaking the title monopoly and making the future title more suspenseful, which is also a great opportunity for the Bundesliga, which is negotiating a new televising deal.
Previously, coach Marcos Alonso announced that he would stay on the club, which also means that almost all the main players will remain at the club, especially Wirtz's father said that his son will stay at the club until at least 2026, while Rolfs has signed long-term contracts with most of the players.
German media revealed that Rolfs and Alonso are already working on plans for the new season, and Bayer Leverkusen is likely to create a real "golden era".
Look at what's happening in the small city of Bayer Leverkusen, where football is supposed to be so beautiful.
Source: DFL and Bayer Leverkusen FC