Founded in 1904 by employees of the paint factory, today better known as a pharmaceutical companyBayer (whose headquarters are in Leverkusen and from which the club draws its name), the club was formerly a department of TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusensports club whose members participate in athletics, gymnastics,basketball, field and handball. In 1999, the football department was separated from the sports club.[8] Bayer Leverkusen's main colours are red and black, which feature across their playing kits and badge, and their main rival is1. FC Köln,[9] while the fans have a deep friendship with the supporters of Kickers Offenbach for almost 50 years.[10]
On 27 November 1903, Wilhelm Hauschild wrote a letter – signed by 180 of his fellow workers – to his employer, theFriedrich Bayer and Co., seeking the company's support in starting a sports club.[13] The company agreed to support the initiative, and on 1 July 1904Turn- und Spielverein Bayer 04 Leverkusen was founded as aworks team.[13] On 31 May 1907, a separate football department was formed within the club.[13] 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 thehandball andfistball players, athletics, andboxing, while the gymnasts carried on asTuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen.[14]SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen took with them the club's traditional colours of red and black, with the gymnasts adopting blue and yellow after a while. Until 1930, Wiesdorf was the hometown of Bayer 04, and Leverkusen was merely the district where the factories and workers' housing were located. In 1930, Wiesdorf and the neighboring municipalities merged to form a new town. They named it Leverkusen because of the factory's importance, among other things, for the community's growth. Thus, the club now bore the name of its city.[15]
Historical chart of Bayer Leverkusen league performance after WWII
Through this period, and into the 1930s, SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen played third and fourth division football.[16] In 1936, they earned promotion to the second highest class of play of the period.[16] That was also the year that the club wore the "Bayer" cross, still visible on their kits, for the first time.[16] They made their first appearance in upper league play in 1951, in theOberliga West and played there until 1956, after which they were relegated.
A freekick in the old stadiumStadtpark against SV Sodingen in 1955
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, theBundesliga. The next year saw the club in theRegionalliga West, tier II.
2. Bundesliga to Bundesliga, UEFA Cup, and DFB-Pokal
After not having been among the top teams in the second-tier Regionalliga SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen made something of a breakthrough in 1968 by sensationally winning the division title (with only 15 men in the squad), 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 the2. 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 the1979–80 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 asTSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen e.V. The new club took red and white as its colours. Although the football department officially retained the colors black and red, the "Werkself" played in red and white for the next ten years.
In addition to becoming an established Bundesliga side, the club earned its first honours with a win in the1988 UEFA Cup. Down 0–3 toEspanyol 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.[17][18]
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.
The club won its next major honour in 1993 with a 1–0 win in theDFB-Pokal final againstHertha BSC second team (amateur squad) on 12 June 1993.[18][21] 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").
Leverkusen earned a series of four second-place finishes from 1997 to 2002. Most notably, the team had the Bundesliga title within their grasp in 2000 and 2002.[24] In 2000, Leverkusen needed only a draw againstSpVgg Unterhaching to win the title, but an own goal by Michael Ballack helped send the team to a heart-wrenching 2–0 defeat, whileBayern Munich won the title with a 3–1 victory overWerder Bremen. Two years later, the club surrendered a five-point lead atop the league table by losing two of its last three matches, whileBorussia Dortmund swept ahead[tone] with three consecutive victories in its final matches. The 2002 season has been dubbed[by whom?] the "Treble Horror", as Leverkusen were also beaten 4–2 in theDFB-Pokal final bySchalke 04 and lost theUEFA Champions League final 2–1 toReal Madrid, which also led to some of the English-language media dubbing them "Neverkusen".[25][26][27] Leverkusen was the first team to reach the final of the Champions League without ever having won a national championship.[28] In addition, five members of the Bayer Leverkusen team were also members of the Germany national team which lost thefinal of the World Cup of 2002.
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 Thomas Hörster.[citation needed]Klaus Augenthaler managed the last two games of the season with a win over his previous club,1. FC Nürnberg.[citation needed] Bayer Leverkusen finished at a third-place finish and a Champions League place the following year.
That following season's run in theChampions League saw the club open its group stage campaign with a 3–0 win againstReal Madrid[29] a result which helped Leverkusen to win the group.[30] Leverkusen, however, was defeated in the first knockout round by eventual championsLiverpool.[31][32] The club finished sixth during the2004–05 season to qualify for thenext season's UEFA Cup.
Early in 2005, Augenthaler was fired as manager after the club got off[tone] 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 toCSKA Sofia in the first leg of its UEFA Cup match-up.[33] Former Germany national team manager Rudi Völler, who had been named sporting director prior to the season, took charge of five matches ascaretaker manager.[vague][34][35]Michael Skibbe, who was Völler's assistant coach with the national team, was named as his successor in October 2005.[35] Skibbe turned Leverkusen's season around,[tone][vague] and guided the club to a sixth-place finish in2006, earning anotherUEFA Cup place, and then repeated that feat with a fifth placeBundesliga finish in 2007.[35]
The2007–08 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.[citation needed] Michael Skibbe was heavily criticised[by whom?] towards the end of the season after he continuously changed his starting line up.[citation needed] Bayer Leverkusen also lost a lot[quantify] 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,[vague] 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'sUEFA Cup group stage.[36]
The2008–09 season got off to a great start[according to whom?] for Bayer Leverkusen under new managerBruno Labbadia, who the club had acquired from 2. Bundesliga clubSpVgg Greuther Fürth.[37] As the season progressed, however, the team secured no wins against top[vague] clubs in the Bundesliga. However, Leverkusen reached theDFB-Pokal final on 30 May 2009 inBerlin, but lost the game 0–1 to Werder Bremen.[35][38] Leverkusen finished the season in ninth place in the Bundesliga table and Labbadia moved toHamburger SV in June 2009.[vague][39] Shortly thereafter,[when?] Leverkusen presentedJupp Heynckes, who had previously managed Bayern Munich afterJürgen Klinsmann's departure, as its new manager.[40] In the2010–11 season, Bayer Leverkusen finished as runner-up, thus qualifying for theChampions League for the first time since2005. 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.[41] In the2012–13 and2015–16 seasons, Leverkusen finished third with coachSami Hyypiä andRoger Schmidt respectively, but were knocked out in the round of 16 of the Champions League the following season both times. In the2019–20 UEFA Europa League, Leverkusen reached the quarter-finals for the first time since2008,[42] but were ultimately[vague] knocked out byInter Milan in a 2–1 loss.
From Neverkusen to "Neverlusen": Xabi Alonso's unbeaten run
Celebration after the first win of the German Championship in 2024
In October 2022, with the club in the relegation zone, Leverkusen appointedXabi Alonso as head coach in his first senior managerial role; he went on to guide the team to safety and a sixth-placed finish.[43] In2023–24, Alonso's first full season in charge, Leverkusen achieved significant domestic and European milestones, bolstered by effective squad building and strategic signings includingSwitzerland captainGranit Xhaka,Victor Boniface,Jonas Hofmann,Alejandro Grimaldo, andMatej Kovar.[44] 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 byHamburger SV since the 1982–83 season) for the longest unbeaten run by a club in all competitions with 26 games unbeaten[45] followed by breaking the European record of the European "top 5 leagues" (Bundesliga,Premier League,Primera División,Ligue 1,Serie A) set byJuventus in 2011 and 2012 of 43 cross-competitive compulsory games in a row without defeat.[46][47] On 14 April 2024, Leverkusen were crowned Bundesliga champions for the first time ever after beatingWerder Bremen 5–0, endingBayern Munich's run of 11 successive league titles.[11][48] This was the club's first trophy since winning the1992–93 DFB-Pokal.[49] On 9 May 2024, Leverkusen set a new record forthe longest run of matches without a loss in European football history (since the introduction of UEFA club competitions) following a 2–2 draw againstRoma in the Europa League; they broke the previous record of 48 set byBenfica between 1963 and 1965.[50][51] Leverkusen then finished the league season unbeaten, the first club in the Bundesliga to do so.[52][53] Their unbeaten streak ended in their 52nd game of the season with a hat trick byAdemola Lookman giving them a 3–0 loss toAtalanta in theEuropa League final.[54][55] They won the2024 DFB-Pokal final by beating1. FC Kaiserslautern to win the domesticdouble.[56]
At the start of thenew season on 17 August 2024, the team won theDFL-Supercup for the first time ever beatingVfB Stuttgart after penalties. However, their domestic unbeaten streak ended on 31 August 2024 after a 3–2 defeat toRB Leipzig.[57] This led to a less successful season for Leverkusen as the club relinquished theBundesliga title back to Bayern Munich who also beat them 5–0 on aggregate in the round of 16 of theChampions League. Leverkusen also lost in the semi-finals of theDFB-Pokal to third-tier sideArminia Bielefeld leaving them with the DFL-Supercup as their only trophy of the season. Xabi Alonso departed the club at the end of the season to replaceCarlo Ancelotti as manager ofReal Madrid.[58]
On 26 May 2025, Leverkusen announced formerManchester United andAjax managerErik ten Hag would replace Alonso as head coach, with Ten Hag starting his job on 1 July 2025.[59] Later that year, on 1 September, Ten Hag was sacked after only two league matches.[60] Kasper Hjulmand was named as his replacement on September 8, 2025.[61]
The 50+1 rule in German football states that a club must hold at least 50 percent of the voting rights plus one vote in its spun-off corporation in order to maintain control. The goal is to limit the influence of external investors and protect the club's structure. However, there are two exceptions: Leverkusen andVfL Wolfsburg. Because these clubs were founded as works clubs and the corresponding companies supported the club financially, among other things, for many decades, the football department of Bayer 04 was spun off from the overall club in 1999 and has been a subsidiary of Bayer AG ever since. This allows to offset financial losses at the end of a fiscal year, but also requires profits to be transferred.[62]
However, a ruling by the Federal Cartel Office from 2025 identifies a need for improvements regarding the exemptions. Therefore, it can be assumed that the German Football League (DFL) will demand more say for the parent club TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen e.V. in the future, or that members will have to be more closely involved in other ways.[63]
Bayer 04 was the first Bundesliga club whose fans identified themselves asUltras.[64] Even though the club was founded at the beginning of the 20th century on the initiative of the employees and even aldo had roots as a works club in the socialist-influenced workers' sports movement (the workers' sports club Germania Wiesdorf [unique example of a socialist workers sports club that was supported by a factory] was absorbed into TUS Bayer 04 after being banned by the National Socialists),[65] many fans of other clubs criticise Bayer Leverkusen as being a "plastic club", existing solely as a creation of their rich pharmaceutical company sponsor –Bayer AG.[66][67] As a result, the club and their fans have started to emphasize their industrial origins with pride, calling themselves "Werkself" (Eng. "Company Eleven", "Factory team", "Millhanders") or "Pillendreher" (Eng. "Tablet twisters").[68][69]
Bayer Leverkusen's corporate origins, however, are far from unique. Other clubs, includingPSV,FC Carl Zeiss Jena,Arsenal F.C.,West Ham United F.C. andStade de Reims also founded asworks teams.[70][71] In addition, it is often forgotten that until 1999, the football department of Bayer 04 was part of the still existing parent club TSV Bayer 04 e.V. in accordance with the 50+1 rule, which has since become one of the most successful sports clubs in Germany. As distinguished from the variousRed Bull teams (Salzburg,New York andLeipzig) which were established or redefined in the early 21st century primarily for commercial reasons, the formation of Bayer Leverkusen was motivated by the idea of promoting the living conditions of local factory workers early in the 20th century. In view of this tradition, UEFA allows Bayer Leverkusen to use the brand name Bayer in European club competitions, while disallowing such naming practices, most notably to Red Bull Salzburg.[72]
In March 2020, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and RB Leipzig, the four German UEFA Champions League teams for the 2019–20 season, collectively gave €30 million to Bundesliga and to Bundesliga teams that were struggling financially during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[73]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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