Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Bayer 04 Leverkusen is a German football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club is the football department of the sports club TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Bayer currently feature in the German Bundesliga.

Tum- und Spielverein Bayer 04 Leverkusen was founded on July 1,1904 and on May 31, 1907 a separate football department was formed within the club. A split occurred fter some years and on June 28, 1928 the footballer moved away and established a separate association known as the Sportvereinigung Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Soon the current club came to be formed.

Bayer played in the Oberliga West in 1951 and were relegated in 1956. After enduring several years in the second and third division league titles, Bayer reached the German Bundesliga in the 1979-1980 season. Soon they had well established themselves in the German first division and after the German reunification in 1990, the club began to sign several new players, including Bernd Schuster and Rudi Voller, and won the German Cup in 1993.

Bayern Leverkusen finished in the top of the German Bundesliga in each of the season from 1997 to 2002 and consolidated their positions as one of the best teams in Germany at the time. They narrowly missed the German Bundesliga title in 2002 and then in 2002 missed out on three trophies: the German Bundesliga, the German Cup and the UEFA Champions League. They lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid, the Bundesliga to Borussia Dortmund and the German Cup to Schalke 04.

In recent seasons though Bayer have slipped won the table after the sale-out of influential players such as Michael Ballack. They have participated in the UEFA Cup in these years thought they have suffered from inconsistency.

Bayer Leverkusen play their home matches at the Bayarena stadium which can entertain a crowd of 30,210. They bear the nickname Werkself (Factory Squad) or Vizekusen (the second is also called Vizemeister in the German language) because they won the second place so often.