“Really just awesome”
All dams are breaking at super team Bayer Leverkusen and Xabi Alonso
April 14, 2024, 8:45 p.m
Bayer Leverkusen are German champions for the first time. After the 5-0 win against Werder Bremen, the title is perfect after just 29 match days. Even before the final whistle, the fans storm the interior and later the lawn. The players are embraced by ecstatic fans.
After his second goal this Sunday evening, Florian Wirtz urged the already completely detached Bayer Leverkusen fans to remain calm and objective. After 82 minutes, the first of them rushed onto the pitch and were in the best possible mood for the title. So much suffering and “vice” had accumulated under the Bayer Cross over all these years that there was no time left to wait any longer. But once again the followers were reassured by their little magician. But when he scored his third strike eight minutes later and made it 5-0 against the hopeless Werder Bremen, all the dams broke. The place was flooded. Referee Harm Osmers forewent added time and simply let Leverkusen’s dream live.
It washed the fans onto the lawn with great force. It should actually remain in good condition, that’s what those responsible had hoped for. It was, as you could already tell, a pretty naive idea. Master for the first time, nothing remains as it was. Red-black pyroscopic smoke covered the stadium once again on this Sunday evening.
The fans ran up to their heroes, hugged them, hugged them, and took hundreds of selfies. In the middle is Wirtz, the greatest footballer of this outstandingly strong team, which is still unbeaten this season. In the middle of it all was Jeremie Frimpong, the tricky and hard-to-stop winger who obviously couldn’t get enough of the hugs. The fans burst into tears of happiness.
“It’s indescribable. I can’t even realize it personally,” said Wirtz on DAZN. A little later he had to endure several beer showers. “Pure emotions. Everything really flows through the body,” said Jonas Hofmann: “I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry. We always pushed ourselves to the limit. It’s really just awesome.” Super coach Xabi Alonso, who defied all the advances of FC Bayern and probably also FC Liverpool and remains coach of the Werkself beyond the season, took souvenir photo after souvenir photo in the midst of the cheering crowd before he escaped into the players’ tunnel. The path was like a labyrinth with no way out. But Alonso found one. The Spaniard is succeeding in everything this season.
Fans rename street “Xabi-Alonso-Allee”.
Leverkusen was already in a party frenzy before the game. The team bus crept through the street to the stadium, the fans stood in line and sang “Only SVB will be German champions”. They covered the path in a thick sea of fog. Pictures of street renaming were shared on social networks, including a “Xabi-Alonso-Allee”. “King Xabi” was also celebrated in the stadium, the Basque who brought the luck and can forever be celebrated as the hero who showed the unpopular “vice” epithet the way out of the city. Leverkusen has been in love with this coach for months.
The charismatic Basque was also the first point of contact in the dressing room. A mighty shower of beer poured over his head. He knows this tradition from his playing days at FC Bayern, whose decade-long dominance he has now impressively ended. The first championship in the club’s history was won undefeated and with a 16-point lead. “The whole season is great, we were very consistent, we played very well, the results were almost all deserved,” said Alonso and announced an exhilarating party after the masterpiece in the BayArena: “A lot of beer, German beer.” He is free to play on Monday. “In football sometimes everything is fast, but today we have to stop and enjoy.”
This team plays close to perfection with this coach and always forces the luck of the game on their side in an emergency. After he had finally been proclaimed the club saint with a beer shower, Alonso treated himself to a deep pull from the glass. “It’s a great moment. We have to enjoy today and celebrate with our families, friends and fans. The feeling is incredible,” said the Spaniard, soaking wet, on DAZN.
“A dream has come true. I am so proud and it touches me very much that our city, my hometown, is able to experience and celebrate this moment,” said Mayor Uwe Richrath. Above all, this is a gift to the fans. “To those who have been cheering on their team for decades in good and bad times, who are always there and remain loyal to their club,” explained the politician. Many fans and the city have been waiting for this moment for more than 30 years. “They hardly dared to believe that the championship trophy would ever come to Leverkusen. Now it has happened and the dam has broken.”
FC Bayern congratulates with a declaration of war
There were congratulations from FC Bayern, among others: “Congratulations, especially to Xabi Alonso, his team and the entire team. Your football has thrilled the Bundesliga. FC Bayern’s streak has broken, but we will now do everything we can to get back to it to attack,” said sports director Max Eberl. National coach Julian Nagelsmann is also hoping for a boost from the championship: “That can only be good for us as a team. The signature of coach “The team’s performances are proof of how important the right mix of quality and mentality is,” said Nagelsmann.
One of those Nagelsmann is hoping for is Robert Andrich, Toni Kroos’ new bodyguard in the DFB team. He, too, could hardly be held back after the triumph and fabled: “There’s not just Bayern Munich, there’s also Bayer Leverkusen. Now it’s Bayer Leverkusen time, now there’s finally a good German champion.” He followed it with a wink. The 29-year-old held a huge glass of Kölsch in his hand in the catacombs – and announced more beer showers for his coach. “One has already caught him, the second will follow soon. Now we’ll let the evening take its course – but I think it’s going to be quite long.”
In 120 years of club history, Bayer had only won two titles, but this season it could be a triple. Leverkusen is the big favorite going into the DFB Cup final in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium against second division team 1. FC Kaiserslautern (May 25th), and Alonso’s team also has the best chance of winning the next one before the second leg of the Europa League at West Ham (first leg 2-0). Round.