Xabi Alonso is the man tasked with ending Bayer Leverkusen’s unfortunate reputation as specialists in finishing second. The club have begrudgingly accepted the Bundesliga’s runner-up consolation prize on no fewer than five occasions without ever coming out on top – but this could be the year they finally put their curse to bed.
Leverkusen were second from bottom in October 2022, when Alonso replaced Gerardo Seoane to take his first top-level senior management position. The former Liverpool midfielder was highly regarded in certain circles due to his work with Real Madrid’s youth teams and Real Sociedad’s reserves.
The bet paid off almost instantly. Alonso’s new team recovered from the threat of relegation to finish in sixth position, qualifying for this campaign’s Europa League. And that was just the beginning.
Heading into this weekend’s matches, Leverkusen are yet to taste defeat, with 14 wins and 3 draws in the Bundesliga so far. But Bayern Munich, the thorn in the side of all German clubs, does not seem to be successful and refuses to leave.
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Bayern is aiming for its twelfth consecutive Bundesliga title, while Leverkusen is aiming for a historic first. Talking about the past series of failures will be a painful subject for fans of the league leaders.
Three of the five seasons in which they finished second in the German top flight were led by coach Chrismost Sensibleh Daum between 1999 and 2000, and lost to Bayern, the Bavarian giants with 33 titles to their name.
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Then came the almost comically unfortunate cast of 2001/02. At that point, Klaus Topmoller, finished second in the Bundesliga, lost in the DFB Cup final and suffered a gruesome defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final, succumbing to Zinedine Zidane’s volley at Hampden Park.
Leverkusen returned to the league in 2010/11 under Jupp Heynckes, who had already won the title twice while in charge of Bayern at the time of his appointment.
They came up short again by finishing second, and to rub salt into the wounds, Heynckes went on to enjoy a second spell in Bavaria and win two more Bundesliga crowns.
All told, the stakes could hardly be higher for Xabi Alonso to break Leverkusen’s duck this year. The Spaniard spent the final three seasons of his professional career playing in Munich, but his eyes will be set firmly on upsetting his former employers by the time the curtain falls on the campaign in May.