Double win
40,000 Leverkusen fans celebrate team in the BayArena
Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah (M) presents the championship trophy and the cup at the championship celebration in the BayArena. Photo
© Marius Becker/dpa
The players of double winner Leverkusen celebrate at the end of the party marathon with the fans in their own stadium. A club legend is overwhelmed by emotions.
Around 40,000 fans celebrated the team of double winners Bayer Leverkusen in the BayArena. After returning from Berlin, players and coach Xabi Alonso signed the city’s Golden Book Leverkusen and then drove to the stadium in an open truck. Several thousand fans cheered them on on the way there. After winning the German football championship for the first time, Bayer also won the DFB Cup with a 1-0 win in the final against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Saturday.
At exactly 5 p.m., Alonso, captain Lukas Hradecky and defender Jonathan Tah led the team out of the players’ tunnel into the stadium. Hradecky carried the championship trophy, Tah the DFB Cup, and Alonso walked between the two onto the stage, where all the players were later introduced individually as the rain began to fall. “Don’t stop” by the US band Red Hot Chili Peppers played in the background.
As a co-commentator for WDR, long-time Bayer goalkeeper Rüdiger Vollborn was briefly overwhelmed by emotion at that moment. Vollborn’s voice faltered, he was unable to continue speaking for a moment and then said: “I’ve dreamed of the day for so long, that they’ll finally have something tangible again.” The 61-year-old was part of the team that won the UEFA Cup in 1988, and today he works as a fan representative and club archive for the club.