In the middle
Many people still can’t believe it: “Vizekusen” is supposed to become “Meisterkusen”. A decades-long dream is more than just a title for Leverkusen. What a football championship means to fans and the city.
“We for our dream” – these words are proudly and full of conviction emblazoned on the bridge right next to the Leverkusen stadium. Even if many still can’t quite believe that the dream of the German Football Championship can really come true.
Among them are Julius Manderfeld and Marcel Kotlorz, both fans for many years. “This season I’m extremely nervous at every Bundesliga game because you can see what’s going on now,” says Manderfeld. The 19-year-old has been a Bayer fan since he was born. Before every game, he and his boys get ready for the game. At the Stadioneck, a fan bar on the way to the stadium.
The second family
“It feels like a small family where you like to come every other week, and that’s been the case for us for about 15 years,” says Manderfeld. The parents were already fans of Bayer Leverkusen.
Being born in Leverkusen usually means being a fan. Not always, but often. “That’s why I would say that Bayer Leverkusen is also special for Leverkusen. Because every resident has actually been to the stadium and is also a fan of this team,” says Marcel Kotlorz.
Leverkusen is located directly on the Rhine and, for many, seemingly insignificant between Cologne and Düsseldorf. In the chemical and corporate city, many residents also work for Bayer AG. But things are no longer the same as they used to be – Bayer AG is in crisis. A problem for the city, over which the large Bavarian cross shines brightly every evening. For many residents, the work creates identity.
Championship celebration despite the lack of a balcony?
Bayer Leverkusen has been part of the first football league for over 40 years – and in contrast to the factory, the atmosphere is anything but crisis. The flags have been hoisted and are flying in red and black with the Werkself emblem in front of the town hall.
Other clubs in their cities have often held championship celebrations on the balcony of the town hall – like in Munich or Dortmund. In Leverkusen the building does not have a balcony. It’s not even its own building, but part of a shopping center. “Somehow it will work,” jokes Julius Manderfeld. He expects a celebration in the stadium.
ups and downs
Because it’s right in the heart of the city, right on the Stelze, as people from Leverkusen say. Next to the stilt bridge over which the A1 runs.
Manderfeld and Kotlortz also play football themselves. They train three times a week with the U19 team of SV Schlebusch, a local club.
Your coach Roger Landwehr has also been a fan of Bayer Leverkusen for more than 40 years. He knows what highs and especially lows a Bayer fan has to go through.
It’s not for nothing that Leverkusen is nicknamed “Vizekusen”. To date, Leverkusen has only won two titles: the 1988 UEFA Cup against Espanyol Barcelona and the 1993 DFB Cup against the amateurs Hertha BSC Berlin.
Bitter missed championship opportunity
But Bayer Leverkusen came second more often. Just vice. Three times in the 2002 season alone: championship, DFB Cup and Champions League.
For many, the missed championship opportunity in 1999/2000 is almost even more bitter. A draw on the last day of the match would have been missing. But that just wasn’t going to work against Unterhaching, remembers Roger Landwehr, who was in the stadium at the time: “Sure, we went there at lunchtime, full of conviction that we would be champions. But then we lost 2-0. And the way back was on the bus then just brutal.”
He drives back after the game with around 50 fans. The sadness was endless: “Absolute dead silence, so much so that you can hear a pin drop. Simply amazing, I have never – and we were tough guys back then – seen so many tears.”
End of disappointments
But finally this year, a good two decades later, there should be tears of joy: “After decades of disappointment, it’s definitely a bit of satisfaction that the football gods turned things in the right direction somewhere.”
The fans are looking forward to the game against Bremen. They almost can’t believe it, but they’re sure, even if they don’t dare say it.
Julius Manderfeld is looking forward to the match day: “I can hardly wait. We will be at the stadium at 12 p.m. on Sunday.” Roger Landwehr adds: “And then the city will be demolished after the game, you can assume that.”