When Bayer Leverkusen beat Manchester United to the 2002 Champion's League Final, Klaus Toppmoller danced across the BayArena turf to show his celebration and he announced that it was "time for cigarettes and drinking!" The assumption was that they would be part of the "party accoutrements", however they should have been implemented as "nerve calmers" because Leverkusen's promising domestic season was beginning to "fall part".
The club was politely known as "Neverkusen" as the chance of the club winning something was appearing to be unlikely. In their 98 years of existence the club had only won the 1988 UEFA Cup and 1993 DFB-Pokal, the German Cup. Famouks for "bridling" at the final hurdle, the club had finished "second" in the Bunderliga three times with the most painful defeat occurring in 2000, when needing a draw against mid-table
Unterhaching to land the title, star man, Michael Ballack scored an OWN GOAL to set up a 2-0 defeat, giving the prize to Bayern Munich. Compare this "disaster" to that in 2002!
On April 20th, that season, Leverkusen held a five-point lead in the Bundesliga over Borussia Dortmund with three games left and within a week, defeats to Werder Bremen and lowly Nuremberg, handed the lead to Dortmund. A final day win over Herta Berlin wasn't enough! Dormund beat Bremen and Leverkusen were runners-up again. In the next week's Cup Final, they lost 2-4 to Schalke, so all that was left to them was the Champions' League, which Real Madrid was not prepared to surrender, as they won 2-1.
Claus Toppmoller announced that "It hurts to win nothing. It is difficult and makes us feel bitter". The "horror" was not over for Ballack as he missed Germany's World Cup appearance that Summer through a suspension!! Then endured another "Treble Horror" at Chelsea in 2008 as his London club came second in the League, in the Champions' League and runners-up in the Carling Cup.
On 27 November 1903, Wilhelm Hauschild from the Friedrich Bayer and Company, wrote a letter – signed by 180 of his fellow workers – to his employer, seeking the company's support in starting a sports' club. The company agreed to support the initiative, and on 1 July 1904 Turn- und Spielverein Bayer 04 Leverkusen was founded as a works' team. On 31 May 1907, a separate football department was formed within the club. In the culture of sports in Germany at the time, there was significant animosity between gymnasts and other types of athletes. Eventually this contributed to a split within the club: on 8 June 1928, the footballers formed a separate association – Sportvereinigung Bayer 04 Leverkusen – that also included the handball and fistball players, athletics, and boxing, while the gymnasts carried on as TuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
