Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Also written as Leverkusen.
The club
Bayer 04 Leverkusen were founded on 1 July 1904 as the gymnastics and sports club of the paint factories of Friedrich Bayer and Co in Leverkusen, the works club of the chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer, whose headquarters remain in the city and which still owns the football club today. The football department itself was formed on 1 June 1907 inside that wider sports club, and in 1999 the football section was split off from the multi-sport TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen and reorganised as its own company, majority-owned by Bayer AG. The parent-company ownership is the reason Leverkusen is one of only three clubs, alongside VfL Wolfsburg (Volkswagen) and TSG Hoffenheim, exempted from the Bundesliga's 50+1 fan-ownership rule.
The club plays at the BayArena in Leverkusen, with a capacity of 30,210, one of the smaller grounds among the Bundesliga's regular European qualifiers. Further detail on the stadium's rebuilding history and earlier capacity was not established from the sources read here.
The head coach is the Dane Kasper Hjulmand, who signed a contract to 30 June 2027 when he was appointed on 8 September 2025. He succeeded the Dutchman Erik ten Hag, who had been hired that same summer to replace Xabi Alonso but was sacked after only two Bundesliga matches and three competitive games in charge, a record for the fewest league games before a dismissal in German football.
Recent seasons
Leverkusen were serial nearly-men through the 1990s and 2000s before Xabi Alonso's arrival in October 2022 changed the club's trajectory. In 2023/24 they won the Bundesliga for the first time in the club's history, finishing unbeaten with 28 wins and 6 draws from 34 matches for 90 points, and completed a domestic double by winning the DFB-Pokal. That unbeaten run extended to 51 consecutive competitive matches across the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Europa League before it ended. In 2024/25 Leverkusen finished as Bundesliga runners-up behind Bayern Munich, reached the DFB-Pokal semi-finals, and went out of the Champions League in the round of 16 to Bayern Munich, losing 5-0 on aggregate. Xabi Alonso left for Real Madrid at the end of that season. In 2025/26, under Kasper Hjulmand after the brief Erik ten Hag interlude, Leverkusen finished sixth in the Bundesliga with 17 wins, 8 draws and 9 losses from 34 matches, 59 points, 68 goals scored and 47 conceded, also reaching the DFB-Pokal semi-finals again.
Honours and landmarks
Bundesliga champions once, in 2023/24, and runners-up six times, in 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2001/02, 2010/11 and 2024/25. DFB-Pokal winners twice, in 1992/93 and 2023/24, and runners-up in 2001/02, 2008/09 and 2019/20. UEFA Cup winners in 1987/88. DFL-Supercup winners in 2024. Champions League runners-up in 2001/02, losing the final to Real Madrid.
The repeated near-misses, especially the 2001/02 season in which Leverkusen lost the Bundesliga title on the final day to Borussia Dortmund having led by several points, then lost the DFB-Pokal final 4-2 to Schalke 04, then lost the Champions League final 2-1 to Real Madrid, all within about eleven days, earned the club the mocking nickname "Neverkusen," anglicised from the German "Vizekusen" (roughly "runners-up-kusen"). Bayer AG trademarked the term Vizekusen in 2010, the year the team went on a 24-game unbeaten start to the season under Jupp Heynckes but still finished only fourth. Xabi Alonso's 2023/24 title is generally described in the football press as having ended the Neverkusen curse.
Notable scorelines
In the 2001/02 Champions League, Leverkusen eliminated Liverpool in the quarter-finals on a 4-3 aggregate score and Manchester United in the semi-finals on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate before losing the final 2-1 to Real Madrid at Hampden Park, Zinedine Zidane's left-foot volley the decisive and famous goal. In the 1987/88 UEFA Cup final, Leverkusen won the home leg 3-0 after extra time before losing the away leg 3-0 at Espanyol, taking the trophy on penalties after a 3-3 aggregate. In the 2023/24 Europa League, Leverkusen beat West Ham United 3-1 in the quarter-finals and Roma 4-2 in the semi-finals before losing the final 3-0 to Atalanta in Dublin, the defeat that ended their 51-match unbeaten run. The club's all-time record Bundesliga win and record defeat were not established from the sources read here.
European record
Leverkusen's best European result remains the 1987/88 UEFA Cup, won on penalties against Espanyol after a 3-3 aggregate. They reached the Champions League final in 2001/02, beating Liverpool and Manchester United on the way before losing 2-1 to Real Madrid at Hampden Park. In 2023/24 they went on their extraordinary continental run under Xabi Alonso, going the whole Europa League campaign unbeaten before losing the final 3-0 to Atalanta in Dublin, having beaten West Ham United and Roma in the knockout rounds. In 2024/25, back in the Champions League, they finished in the league-phase places needed to advance but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Bayern Munich, losing 5-0 on aggregate. They entered the 2025/26 Champions League and reached the round of 16 again, per club records, before finishing sixth in the Bundesliga sent them into the 2026/27 Europa League rather than the Champions League. Full detail on the 2025/26 European knockout results was not established from the sources read here.
Quotes
No cleanly sourced, directly quoted material about the 2023/24 title season or the current squad was confirmed from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Kasper Hjulmand is the head coach, having taken over from the briefly employed Erik ten Hag in September 2025 after Xabi Alonso's departure for Real Madrid. Leverkusen have made a mixed start to the 2026/27 Bundesliga season: a 2-3 defeat away to Elversberg on 29 August 2026, a 4-0 win at home over Union Berlin on 5 September 2026, and a 2-2 home draw with Augsburg on 12 September 2026, Patrik Schick coming off the bench to score a late equaliser. That form places them in mid-table after the opening rounds. The club strengthened its attack over the summer by re-signing the winger Moussa Diaby from Al-Ittihad for a reported 27 million euros, three years after selling him to Aston Villa; Diaby is understood to have given up a substantial severance from his Saudi Arabian contract to force the move through.
Having finished sixth in the 2025/26 Bundesliga, Leverkusen enter the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League rather than the Champions League, and open the league phase at home to Celje of Slovenia on 16 September 2026 at the BayArena. It is Leverkusen's twenty-first participation in the competition against Celje's second; Leverkusen have won their previous nine home matches in the Europa League. Celje reach this stage having been eliminated by Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League play-off round on away goals or extra time after a 3-2 aggregate, and go into the Leverkusen match on the back of a 2-1 domestic defeat to NK Bravo. Leverkusen are heavy favourites for the fixture on current form and squad depth, though their draw with Augsburg the previous weekend showed a team still settling under Hjulmand. Further detail on team news and lineups for the Celje match was not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_04_Leverkusen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_04_Leverkusen_in_European_football https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Bayer_04_Leverkusen_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001%E2%80%9302_Bayer_04_Leverkusen_season https://www.bayer04.de/en-us/page/werkself-coaches/kasper-hjulmand https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/46126585/erik-ten-hag-sacked-bayer-leverkusen-three-games https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/46196901/bayer-leverkusen-appoint-hjulmand-coach-ten-hag-sacking https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/bayer-leverkusen-appoint-kasper-hjulmand-coach-erik-ten-hag-33923 https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/bayer-leverkusen-record-unbeaten-run-xabi-alonso-26289 https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/bayer-leverkusen-nickname-neverkusen-history-story-xabi-alonso-26923 https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/bayer-leverkusen-augsburg-match-report-highlights-matchday-30-36954 https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2024/5/19/the-statistics-behind-leverkusens-historic-unbeaten-bundesliga-title-win https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/how-erik-ten-hag-bayer-leverkusen-tenure-fell-apart-ex-man-utd-manager-demise-warning-ruben-amorim/blt4fe1b798aa604c3b https://www.getfootballnewsgermany.com/2026/moussa-diaby-b04-official/ https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/moussa-diaby-sacrificed-15-million-105234883.html https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/bayer-leverkusen-celje-live-europa-league-blog-preview-report-diaby-maza-39119 https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/preview-bayer-leverkusen-vs-nk-194000086.html
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.