Executives at Bayer Leverkusen, the longstanding however habitually middleweight German soccer staff, have been fielding the messages since not less than February. Some had been delivered in particular person, a quiet blessing after one more victory. Others got here through WhatsApp, unsolicited and surprising notes from friends and acquaintances and, to their occasional shock, conventional foes.
Soccer, in any case, is fiercely tribal. Rivals don’t simply provide each other encouragement or congratulations. However because the German league season gathered tempo, loads needed to laud Leverkusen’s impending achievement: It was, with every victory, getting nearer and nearer to being topped nationwide champion for the primary time.
And, that meant — simply as importantly — that Bayern Munich was not.
Leverkusen will, this weekend, surge over the road and finish a run of Bayern championships that stretches again greater than a decade. At the very least it ought to: All Leverkusen requires to seal the title is a single victory, which may come as quickly as its sport towards Werder Bremen on Sunday, or for Bayern to lose.
The triumph has been a very long time coming, in a single sense; the membership was based 120 years in the past, in 1904, earlier than town of Leverkusen technically existed. However in one other sense it has arrived extra swiftly than anybody anticipated.
Six months in the past, the staff’s charismatic coach, Xabi Alonso, 42, mentioned he would countenance the concept his aspect would possibly win the championship provided that it was nonetheless in competition in April. As it’s, it’d declare the title so early that it can not have a good time it correctly: The season remains to be in full swing, and Leverkusen has not less than two extra trophies to chase.
Each time the title comes, the membership will maintain a low-key postgame celebration for the gamers and their households at its stadium, the BayArena. But it surely is not going to maintain the normal parade — at which its followers may have the possibility to salute the gamers — till Could 26, the day after the nation’s different main home competitors, the German cup, concludes. (Leverkusen is favored to win that one, too.)
Organizing that celebration has been one thing of a problem: Leverkusen, a small metropolis sandwiched between Cologne and Düsseldorf, doesn’t possess a civic constructing with a ceremonial balcony large enough to permit the staff to greet its followers. (The membership has mentioned it has a number of choices in thoughts, although nothing has been determined.)
“We are going to adorn our metropolis in black and purple wherever we will,” town’s mayor, Uwe Richrath, mentioned in a press release.
It’s not an issue the membership — or town authorities — has needed to face earlier than. Bayer Leverkusen, based greater than a century in the past as a sporting outlet for staff on the close by Bayer chemical plant, has gained solely two main honors in its lengthy historical past. The latest was in 1993.
As a substitute, Leverkusen has change into nearly synonymous with agonizing defeat. In 2002, the membership picked up the Anglicized nickname “Neverkusen” after lacking out on the league title, the German cup and the Champions League, Europe’s marquee soccer competitors, on the final hurdle. That status is so deeply scoured into the membership’s soul that Bayer Leverkusen has patented the German equal, Vizekusen.
Alonso’s staff will, over the following few weeks, exorcise these ghosts in pretty spectacular style. His staff has but to lose a sport this season, and it might probably nonetheless finish the marketing campaign with extra main honors (three) than it has in its total historical past.
That achievement carries a significance that may lengthen a way past its hometown.
The ritual dominance in recent times of Bayern Munich, the nation’s largest and by far richest membership, had change into a supply of appreciable concern — each to German followers and the league itself — because the annual chase to win the league, the Bundesliga, has begun to appear stale and predictable.
As the various messages which have poured in to Bayer Leverkusen attest, there isn’t a little aid inside German soccer on the prospect of a altering of the guard, even when it proves non permanent.
“I can say completely that it’s nice for the Bundesliga,” mentioned Peer Naubert, the chief advertising and marketing officer for Bundesliga Worldwide, the group that promotes German soccer overseas. “Having the identical champion for 11 years in a row didn’t have a adverse affect, but it surely didn’t have a constructive one, both.”
Bayer Leverkusen’s success has allowed the Bundesliga to inform a special story to its worldwide viewers. At the very least a part of that may be attributed to Alonso himself: It’s placing, for instance, how a lot of Leverkusen’s social media output options its coach, a beloved former participant for Liverpool, Actual Madrid and Bayern, three of the world’s hottest golf equipment.
However the league as a complete has seen concrete advantages, too, Mr. Naubert mentioned. “By way of consciousness, curiosity and the variety of avid followers,” he mentioned, citing a metric the Bundesliga makes use of to explain viewers who tune in often, “we now have seen a major improve.”
Many extra individuals are watching Leverkusen’s video games than prior to now, he mentioned, however extra individuals are additionally tuning in for different groups, too. There was a corresponding rise within the league’s social media imprint. “There may be some freshness, I believe,” Mr. Naubert mentioned.
The response amongst followers has been nuanced. It might be stretching it to counsel that Germany is rapturous on the prospect of Leverkusen’s successful the championship. Followers are too loyal to their very own golf equipment, and German soccer too regionalized, for that. The membership additionally lacks the broad diaspora that rivals like Bayern or Borussia Dortmund have, and so doesn’t intrude on the nationwide consciousness fairly a lot as others.
Leverkusen additionally occupies a considerably uneasy place inside German soccer’s firmament. As an offshoot of the company behemoth Bayer, it’s one among a handful of exceptions to the cherished German mannequin: the so-called 50+1 rule, during which followers are required to be the bulk house owners of their golf equipment. It’s a longstanding exception, however it’s nonetheless an exception.
That standing means Leverkusen is “form of the unique sin,” mentioned Dario Minden, a spokesman for Unsere Kurve, a bunch representing Germany’s organized followers. It’s that company backing, in his view, that has enabled the membership to climate the monetary affect of the coronavirus pandemic higher than different groups.
“The necessary factor to see is that the one one to interrupt Bayern’s dominance was a assemble of an enormous pharmaceutical firm,” Mr. Minden mentioned.
However Leverkusen’s prominence isn’t a balm for the monetary imbalance that has allowed Bayern to win the championship yearly since 2012, he mentioned.
Even the truth that Leverkusen is assured it might probably construct on its success — Alonso has turned down approaches from each Liverpool and Bayern to stay as coach subsequent yr, and the staff expects to retain its star participant, Florian Wirtz — isn’t proof of a brand new, extra equitable daybreak for rivals across the league.
As an Eintracht Frankfurt fan, Mr. Minden admitted, he takes no pleasure in any staff apart from his personal successful the championship. “Though perhaps that’s as a result of I’m a foul particular person,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, one side of the championship has supplied him some solace. “We now have this good phrase,” he mentioned. “Schadenfreude.”
Like a lot of Germany, Mr. Minden will not be actively celebrating Leverkusen’s impending victory. He can, although, take just a bit pleasure in the truth that it means Bayern Munich, after 11 lengthy years, will once more get to expertise what it means to complete second.