Bayer 04 Leverkusen club information

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, better known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen, is a strong subtopper playing in the German Bundesliga. After its foundation in 1904, it took until 1979 for the club to be promoted to the highest division of German professional football. Since the mid-80s, Bayer 04 Leverkusen has been consistently at the top of the Bundesliga.

While the club has been known as a gymnastics and sports club since its inception in 1904, Bayer 04 Leverkusen officially became independent in 1999. The gymnastics and sports clubs were divested and Bayer 04 Leverkusen continued as a football club. Between 1997 and 2011, a period of 14 years, the club finished second in the German Bundesliga no less than five times. This earned the club playing in the BayArena the nickname ‘The Eternal Second’.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen rivals

The big rivals of Bayer 04 Leverkusen are Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Köln and Fortuna Düsseldorf. This is mainly due to the geographical location of the teams. Matches between these teams are also called the Rheinland Derby in Germany.

The stadium of Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Bayer Leverkusen has played its home matches in the BayArena in Leverkusen since 1958. Until 1998, however, the stadium had a different name. When the stadium was built in the 1950s, it was named after the former chairman and founder of the club Ulrich Haberland. The Ulrich-Haberland-Stadium. After a ten-year reconstruction and renovation of the stadium in the period 1986 – 1997, the name of the stadium was changed to the BayArena. Where the stadium used to seat 22,500 supporters, after the installation of the second ring in 2009, it offered space for 30,210 fanatical supporters. There is also a hotel in the stadium and it is possible to book unique rooms with a view of the field.