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Executives at Bayer Leverkusen, the longstanding but habitually middleweight German soccer team, have been fielding the messages since at least February. Some were delivered in person, a quiet blessing after yet another victory. Others came via WhatsApp, unsolicited and unexpected notes from peers and acquaintances and, to their occasional surprise, traditional foes.<\/p>\n
Soccer, after all, is fiercely tribal. Rivals do not easily offer one another encouragement or congratulations. But as the German league season gathered pace, plenty wanted to laud Leverkusen\u2019s impending achievement: It was, with each victory, getting closer and closer to being crowned national champion for the first time.<\/p>\n
And, that meant \u2014 just as importantly \u2014 that Bayern Munich was not.<\/p>\n
Leverkusen will, this weekend, surge over the line and end a run of Bayern championships that stretches back more than a decade. At least it should: All Leverkusen requires to seal the title is a single victory, which could come as soon as its game against Werder Bremen on Sunday, or for Bayern to lose.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The triumph has been a long time coming, in one sense; the club was founded 120 years ago, in 1904, before the city of Leverkusen technically existed. But in another sense it has arrived more swiftly than anyone anticipated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Six months ago, the team\u2019s charismatic coach, Xabi Alonso, 42, said he would countenance the idea that his side might win the championship only if it was still in contention in April. As it is, it might claim the title so early that it cannot celebrate it properly: The season is still in full swing, and Leverkusen has at least two more trophies to chase.<\/p>\n
Whenever the title comes, the club will hold a low-key postgame party for the players and their families at its stadium, the BayArena. But it will not hold the traditional parade \u2014 at which its fans will have the chance to salute the players \u2014 until May 26, the day after the country\u2019s other major domestic competition, the German cup, concludes. (Leverkusen is favored to win that one, too.)<\/p>\n
Organizing that celebration has been something of a challenge: Leverkusen, a small city sandwiched between Cologne and D\u00fcsseldorf, does not possess a civic building with a ceremonial balcony big enough to allow the team to greet its fans. (The club has said it has several options in mind, though nothing has been decided.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will adorn our city in black and red wherever we can,\u201d the city\u2019s mayor, Uwe Richrath, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It is not a problem the club \u2014 or the city authorities \u2014 has had to face before. Bayer Leverkusen, founded more than a century ago as a sporting outlet for workers at the nearby Bayer chemical plant, has won only two major honors in its long history. The most recent was in 1993.<\/p>\n
Instead, Leverkusen has become almost synonymous with agonizing defeat. In 2002, the club picked up the Anglicized nickname \u201cNeverkusen\u201d after missing out on the league title, the German cup and the Champions League, Europe\u2019s marquee soccer competition, at the last hurdle. That reputation is so deeply scoured into the club\u2019s soul that Bayer Leverkusen has patented the German equivalent, Vizekusen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Alonso\u2019s team will, over the next few weeks, exorcise those ghosts in fairly spectacular fashion. His team has yet to lose a game this season, and it can still end the campaign with more major honors (three) than it has in its entire history.<\/p>\n
That achievement carries a significance that will extend some way beyond its hometown.<\/p>\n