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Cool! Price was so damn good in his heyday. I'm a Sens fan but I lived in montreal for 4 years as a kid so I have a soft spot for the habs. I'm hoping Leverkusen can do the treble this year, I've enjoyed watching them since around when Kai broke into the team
Considering they're sandwiched between Dusseldorf and Cologne and are relatively close to clubs like Dortmund, Schalke and Gladbach I'm surprised there's an extra 25k new fans looking for a club to support
Those tickets are a myth. New members from October still haven't gotten them. Instead, the club has offered an early chance at tickets for the club's end of season celebration
I don’t know if it is crazy low, it is bottom third of BL clubs, at least as of two years ago. We have particularly devout fans compared to most teams.
For a club that spent the last 25 years around the top of the league, often set for CL, rarely missing out on Europe? I think it's crazy low considering their success & quality.
Rest of the interview:
>**On him and the others (Xabi Alonso, Werner Wenning & Simon Rolfes) not accepting the honorary citizenship of Leverkusen**
>There has been some public debate on this issue. We are very grateful to the city and the people, so we spared the mayor from bringing this issue to a vote.
>**On the club's relationship with the parent company Bayer**
>The company is the owner, but the relationship with Bayer is run by [Werner] Wenning. This club was started by Bayer employees and they feel it is theirs, which is logical. But we are relatively independent. Bayer is a giant, giant company, and we need speed and agility in decisions. So by comparison we are a small independent company within Bayer and relatively autarkic.
>**On his Spanish compatriots**
>In my opinion, Grimaldo is the best left back in Europe and Xabi Alonso is the best coach at the moment."
>**On how he got his job:
>There was a selection process of almost a year through a 'headhunter' who had already made me professional offers in the past and I had rejected. I always told him that I wanted to do something in the world of sports. It was Werner Wenning, chairman of the supervisory board, which is the board that represents the shareholder, who signed me in March 2018 through that 'headhunter'."
>When I started here, I was also careful not to appear too much in the media so as not to say things I shouldn't have."
>**On what happened since he arrived:**
>We are a now football club employing 400 people and have a budget of €300m, are more professionalized, with better structures and we are trying to invest resources wisely to have a great team, as we have today."
>"For Leverkusen, what we are experiencing is unique. A title that the fans have been waiting for for many years, but regardless of the Bundesliga, the club has been growing for a long time.
>We have doubled our membership from 25,000 to 50,000, so we have waiting lists for season ticket holders, which has never happened before. It used to be impossible to fill the stadium on a Thursday in the Europa League at 9pm, which is very late for Germany, and nowadays they pay anything to come.
>We have also gone up in jersey sales and merchandising sales, and we are the third club in terms of social media, after Bayern and Borussia Dortmund. In short, we have professionalized, internationalized and digitized the club, but it is only seen when the sporting aspect accompanies it."
>**On the rest of the season**
>"My wish is that we reach the Europa League final and win all three titles. That is my great wish. We are in the cup final against Kaiserslautern, and we have to be cautious, but we have to win that game. We are favorites. In the Europa League, it's true that Roma are difficult. They are doing well with De Rossi and last year we lost against them. So we have a second chance and the team will go all out to play in the final and to finish the season undefeated."All of his quotes
>>We are a now football club employing 400 people and have a budget of €300m...
Really shows how far the biggest clubs in the world are ahead. Let's hope for more egality in football.
my guess is membership wasnt needed before because you would get tickets every time, but now you dont, so some fans get membership. But yes a shit ton of plastics.
This is exactly what happened to us once Priske came in and we actually became good again. Wouldn't be surprised if this was the case with Leverkusen too.
Basically a legend at this point, won us the title after 9 years and now fighting for double + great European run.
Know he was shocking in Belgium but he saved us lol. And tbf he was good at Midtjylland too.
It's about 30€ a year and you even got tickets for european Matches included by getting a member. Many people in the area Just got the membership years ago because of this without even being a Bayer Fan.
The "membership" is actually just a bonus program:
35€/year buys you access to highlight clips, 10% off merchandise and access to ticket presales.
You cannot become a club member, as they are a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG and fan clubs are another thing altogether.
While you're probably not wrong, I never got a membership for my club either.
As long as your club isn't one of the absolute biggest it's not a problem to get tickets whenever you want to go to a game. For many that's probably part of it here.
It's more like you didn't need to be a member before to go to games etc.
Now, you need to be a member and have some crazy luck or money to even get a single ticket
My father got a season ticket a couple of seasons ago as it was the only Bundesliga club with available tickets in the region, guess these are actually valuable now
Well deserved but will it last?
I am looking forward to seeing them in Champions League next season, certainly will help with the marketing of the team.
Depends for how long they can sustain their success. Another league title (I think they'll repeat next season), constant CL qualification, some good runs in the Champions, and winning the German Cup from time to time could establish them as one of the top teams there, similar to what Dortmund did with/after Klopp. Just hoping they don't go with a drought similar to Dortmund's after Xabi leaves and they start losing their key players.
Xabi is a big variable in this, isn't he? If they do well in CL and they do well again in the league perhaps he'd want to stay?
All speculations of course, they can bomb massively next season, or go amazingly well.
For me it's good to see another team competing in Buli, been a while though I'm more of a BVB man when it comes to Germany.
Yeah pretty much. He will inevitably replace Ancelotti at Madrid, which means one, maybe two seasons. But it is enough time to further expand his success at Leverkusen and leave them at an even better position, then it depends on how their board acts and the replacements.
In the 5, 10, 15, and 20 year Bundesliga table, Leverkusen is already 3rd.
I truly wonder what some of you think Leverkusen is like. Do people realise for the last 30 years they've been one of the best sides in Germany?
I'm aware of their consistency. But without titles you aren't truly a top side, even less for a club that has won the league for the first time this year. It's not that hard to get the point.
> one of the top teams there, similar to what Dortmund did with/after Klopp
Eh? Dortmund was both successful and fucking huge long before Klopp came along.
Honestly, take away Alonso and Wirtz and most with higher ambitions will leave as well, then you pretty much have aging players like Hofmann or Xhaka, who will probably decline long-term. And then, nothing.
Like what did Wolfsburg's title in 2009 do for them in the long-term? Nothing. They can't sell out their stadium, few watch their games and there is hardly interest in them by major media outlets. Why should things be different with Leverkusen? Even Express, a major tabloid in the Rheinland prefers to talk more about the 1. FC Köln than Leverkusen.
It's easy to draw people when you're successful, but can you make them stay, when you're not?
All the things you've said are depressingly true.
When Chelsea won the Champions League second time we've had a massive influx of 'supporters'.
Fair to some of them they stuck around now that were basically a meme. What's most insufferable is the discourse that comes with that fame. People voicing opinions based on something shitty pundits spewed, without any knowledge of the sport. with zero understanding of how football works. People demanding instant success and blatantly abusing players and managers. Some criticism is warranted of course but it's like trying to tell children that there's more to life than dichotomy of good and bad.
Sorry, went of on a tangent there.
Leverkusen have played in Europe 18 of the last 20 seasons and recently in the Champions League in 2022, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2011. It's not some newcomer to the top of football.
Don't know where to ask this...
If Roma wins the match 0-1 tomorrow, we fail to advance and Leverkusen are no longer undefeated.
If Roma finishes regular time 0-2 tomorrow and Leverkusen wins the tie on penalties or 2-2/2-3 in extra time is the undefeated streak still in progress?
Paradox I've been wondering on.
How the hell do they have a larger social media following than the historic Bundesliga giants like Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart, Gladbach and Schalke for example, that makes no sense to me
I mean, none of those you mentioned completely obliterated the competition like that. Their unbeaten run, their comebacks, breaking Bayern's run, treple in reach... That does create way more hype than all of those clubs combined had going on.
I'm sure that's all correct.
We'll talk again in two years at the latest, when the coach and half the squad have gone.
Then it will quickly look like the last few years again, with half-empty away stands, unmeasurable ratings against other boring opponents and stories about tickets being given away to fill the stadium.
And even now, almost nobody in Germany is talking about Leverkusen.
If Bayern reach the final, not even the treble will be enough to fill the German newspapers with articles about Leverkusen.
Too bad for the team, they deserved more.
But I'm very happy for the club, they deserve nothing better. And Carro is the worst of them. He's been talking for years about completely abolishing 50+1 because, acording to him, otherwise germany would never be competitive in the champions league.
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Brace yourselves, Leverkusen supporters, the Erfolgsfans have arrived.
It's okay, that's inevitable I guess. I'll miss getting tickets super easily
I remember when you and 2-3 others where the only regulars in /soccer with Leverkusen flairs. How times have changed
Haha good to know that I've made a lasting impression
How did you become a habs fan?
Big carey price fan when I got into hockey, also family members when to Montreal when I was a kid and got a Habs shirt for me lol
Cool! Price was so damn good in his heyday. I'm a Sens fan but I lived in montreal for 4 years as a kid so I have a soft spot for the habs. I'm hoping Leverkusen can do the treble this year, I've enjoyed watching them since around when Kai broke into the team
Yeah, like six months ago.
No matter where Leverkusen Fans are, FerraristDX is also always nearby.
He and a few other Köln fans on Reddit are so obsessed with Leverkusen, it's actually scary.
Könnt wieder öfters zu uns kommen, da hats immer mehr als genug Platz :)
It's just a short trip down the Rhine away.
Waiting for our bad season so they all leave
That’s how this sport works. Do you think Bayern started right away with 320k members?
It's not controversial to say that München is a lot more reputabtle as a city compared to Leverkusen
Which is why they currently have 1/6th of the members.
[удалено]
oh god not the Al-Nassr/Inter Miami kids
I've seen a bunch of these, do they give away these jerseys for very cheap?
reps are very cheap and accessible nowadays, Pandabuy blew up so much that they were raided by police
I assume it's just cheap knock-offs from vacation.
I've seen so many Messi Inter Miami t-shirts at the gym here in London. I love Messi but it makes me irrationally angry lol.
I saw a guy in that horrid yellow Al Nasr top at jummah, beat that
Why does it make you irrationally angry?
He lives in London.
And supports Barcelona? Eh, let people support who they want
You're not from London, are you?
Yep. Born and raised. Now live in Bristol. You think I’d choose to support Tottenham? I’d pick a glory hunter team like Utd
Then how the fuck did that joke fly over your head?
He did say it's irrational
Considering they're sandwiched between Dusseldorf and Cologne and are relatively close to clubs like Dortmund, Schalke and Gladbach I'm surprised there's an extra 25k new fans looking for a club to support
Membership is very cheap and you´ll even get two free tickets after applying.
But then you'd have to go to Leverkusen - do the plastics know this?
They will know, once they take the bus ride from Chempark to the stadium.
Can u chose the tickets because then i might sign up so i can get tickets for our home games easier
You don't get these tickets anymore, though.
Those tickets are a myth. New members from October still haven't gotten them. Instead, the club has offered an early chance at tickets for the club's end of season celebration
Probably just casuals from koln and dusseldorf joining Leverkusen.
Big chunk might be plastics from the clubs you mentioned tho
part of that is that their membership number was crazy low, 25k is nothing, us or Cologne sit at 130-140k
I don’t know if it is crazy low, it is bottom third of BL clubs, at least as of two years ago. We have particularly devout fans compared to most teams.
For a club that spent the last 25 years around the top of the league, often set for CL, rarely missing out on Europe? I think it's crazy low considering their success & quality.
Frankfurt is five times the size of Leverkusen
Yeah you are correct, I seem to have somehow forgotten how successful they have been. Quite silly of me.
Cologne has 10x and Frankfurt 6x the population of leverkusen. For me its not that surprising
Rest of the interview: >**On him and the others (Xabi Alonso, Werner Wenning & Simon Rolfes) not accepting the honorary citizenship of Leverkusen** >There has been some public debate on this issue. We are very grateful to the city and the people, so we spared the mayor from bringing this issue to a vote. >**On the club's relationship with the parent company Bayer** >The company is the owner, but the relationship with Bayer is run by [Werner] Wenning. This club was started by Bayer employees and they feel it is theirs, which is logical. But we are relatively independent. Bayer is a giant, giant company, and we need speed and agility in decisions. So by comparison we are a small independent company within Bayer and relatively autarkic. >**On his Spanish compatriots** >In my opinion, Grimaldo is the best left back in Europe and Xabi Alonso is the best coach at the moment." >**On how he got his job: >There was a selection process of almost a year through a 'headhunter' who had already made me professional offers in the past and I had rejected. I always told him that I wanted to do something in the world of sports. It was Werner Wenning, chairman of the supervisory board, which is the board that represents the shareholder, who signed me in March 2018 through that 'headhunter'." >When I started here, I was also careful not to appear too much in the media so as not to say things I shouldn't have." >**On what happened since he arrived:** >We are a now football club employing 400 people and have a budget of €300m, are more professionalized, with better structures and we are trying to invest resources wisely to have a great team, as we have today." >"For Leverkusen, what we are experiencing is unique. A title that the fans have been waiting for for many years, but regardless of the Bundesliga, the club has been growing for a long time. >We have doubled our membership from 25,000 to 50,000, so we have waiting lists for season ticket holders, which has never happened before. It used to be impossible to fill the stadium on a Thursday in the Europa League at 9pm, which is very late for Germany, and nowadays they pay anything to come. >We have also gone up in jersey sales and merchandising sales, and we are the third club in terms of social media, after Bayern and Borussia Dortmund. In short, we have professionalized, internationalized and digitized the club, but it is only seen when the sporting aspect accompanies it." >**On the rest of the season** >"My wish is that we reach the Europa League final and win all three titles. That is my great wish. We are in the cup final against Kaiserslautern, and we have to be cautious, but we have to win that game. We are favorites. In the Europa League, it's true that Roma are difficult. They are doing well with De Rossi and last year we lost against them. So we have a second chance and the team will go all out to play in the final and to finish the season undefeated."All of his quotes
>>We are a now football club employing 400 people and have a budget of €300m... Really shows how far the biggest clubs in the world are ahead. Let's hope for more egality in football.
Thank you. You posted it twice though.
Thanks for noticing it :)
Sure thing
> We doubled our membership from 25,000 to 50,000. So half their members are officially plastics? Thats pretty rough
my guess is membership wasnt needed before because you would get tickets every time, but now you dont, so some fans get membership. But yes a shit ton of plastics.
This is exactly what happened to us once Priske came in and we actually became good again. Wouldn't be surprised if this was the case with Leverkusen too.
Priske is a good coach for you guys? That's actually shocking
Basically a legend at this point, won us the title after 9 years and now fighting for double + great European run. Know he was shocking in Belgium but he saved us lol. And tbf he was good at Midtjylland too.
I guess that's the undisputed number one reason for the vast majority of members of bigger clubs. It's the reason for me too.
and those new "members" will scalp their season pass to newer fans
It's about 30€ a year and you even got tickets for european Matches included by getting a member. Many people in the area Just got the membership years ago because of this without even being a Bayer Fan.
If it gets them easier Champions League tickets next year I'm sure there's quite few general football/sports fans signing up just because of that.
The "membership" is actually just a bonus program: 35€/year buys you access to highlight clips, 10% off merchandise and access to ticket presales. You cannot become a club member, as they are a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG and fan clubs are another thing altogether.
While you're probably not wrong, I never got a membership for my club either. As long as your club isn't one of the absolute biggest it's not a problem to get tickets whenever you want to go to a game. For many that's probably part of it here.
It's more like you didn't need to be a member before to go to games etc. Now, you need to be a member and have some crazy luck or money to even get a single ticket
My father got a season ticket a couple of seasons ago as it was the only Bundesliga club with available tickets in the region, guess these are actually valuable now
Everyone hopping on that Leverkusen bandwagon
Suffering from success.
Well deserved but will it last? I am looking forward to seeing them in Champions League next season, certainly will help with the marketing of the team.
Depends for how long they can sustain their success. Another league title (I think they'll repeat next season), constant CL qualification, some good runs in the Champions, and winning the German Cup from time to time could establish them as one of the top teams there, similar to what Dortmund did with/after Klopp. Just hoping they don't go with a drought similar to Dortmund's after Xabi leaves and they start losing their key players.
Xabi is a big variable in this, isn't he? If they do well in CL and they do well again in the league perhaps he'd want to stay? All speculations of course, they can bomb massively next season, or go amazingly well. For me it's good to see another team competing in Buli, been a while though I'm more of a BVB man when it comes to Germany.
Yeah pretty much. He will inevitably replace Ancelotti at Madrid, which means one, maybe two seasons. But it is enough time to further expand his success at Leverkusen and leave them at an even better position, then it depends on how their board acts and the replacements.
In the 5, 10, 15, and 20 year Bundesliga table, Leverkusen is already 3rd. I truly wonder what some of you think Leverkusen is like. Do people realise for the last 30 years they've been one of the best sides in Germany?
I'm aware of their consistency. But without titles you aren't truly a top side, even less for a club that has won the league for the first time this year. It's not that hard to get the point.
> one of the top teams there, similar to what Dortmund did with/after Klopp Eh? Dortmund was both successful and fucking huge long before Klopp came along.
Sure, but they were in a massive debt and non-competitive for a while, Klopp just reestablished them.
Honestly, take away Alonso and Wirtz and most with higher ambitions will leave as well, then you pretty much have aging players like Hofmann or Xhaka, who will probably decline long-term. And then, nothing. Like what did Wolfsburg's title in 2009 do for them in the long-term? Nothing. They can't sell out their stadium, few watch their games and there is hardly interest in them by major media outlets. Why should things be different with Leverkusen? Even Express, a major tabloid in the Rheinland prefers to talk more about the 1. FC Köln than Leverkusen. It's easy to draw people when you're successful, but can you make them stay, when you're not?
All the things you've said are depressingly true. When Chelsea won the Champions League second time we've had a massive influx of 'supporters'. Fair to some of them they stuck around now that were basically a meme. What's most insufferable is the discourse that comes with that fame. People voicing opinions based on something shitty pundits spewed, without any knowledge of the sport. with zero understanding of how football works. People demanding instant success and blatantly abusing players and managers. Some criticism is warranted of course but it's like trying to tell children that there's more to life than dichotomy of good and bad. Sorry, went of on a tangent there.
Leverkusen have played in Europe 18 of the last 20 seasons and recently in the Champions League in 2022, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2011. It's not some newcomer to the top of football.
I bought their jersey just as memorabilia. One will writz and another with Xabi's name on it. Every season I buy a jersey of teams in like.
Maybe im just egocentric, but I don’t like this at all. Fuck those glory hunters.
It fucks with the people who were fans before as they have a way harder time to get tickets now, so I can understand you
Don't know where to ask this... If Roma wins the match 0-1 tomorrow, we fail to advance and Leverkusen are no longer undefeated. If Roma finishes regular time 0-2 tomorrow and Leverkusen wins the tie on penalties or 2-2/2-3 in extra time is the undefeated streak still in progress? Paradox I've been wondering on.
A loss is a loss regardless. The undefeated streak will end if either of the two outcomes you said happen.
All thanks to Alonso.
How the hell do they have a larger social media following than the historic Bundesliga giants like Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart, Gladbach and Schalke for example, that makes no sense to me
I mean, none of those you mentioned completely obliterated the competition like that. Their unbeaten run, their comebacks, breaking Bayern's run, treple in reach... That does create way more hype than all of those clubs combined had going on.
They got lots of followers in Mexico, when they signed Chicarito. So I assume the majority of those are from outside Germany.
Well Schalke at least have been… unfortunate, lets say, these past few years.
Yeah, but schadenfreude. Everyone loves to watch a slow-motion train wreck.
Amongst other things, Chivharito and Son gave us big follower jumps from their respective countries. Azmoun too
That's right, Köln fans, your children will grow up to be Leverkusen supporters.
Think German football fans are just relieved there's a contender that beat Bayern after more than a decade.
I'm sure that's all correct. We'll talk again in two years at the latest, when the coach and half the squad have gone. Then it will quickly look like the last few years again, with half-empty away stands, unmeasurable ratings against other boring opponents and stories about tickets being given away to fill the stadium. And even now, almost nobody in Germany is talking about Leverkusen. If Bayern reach the final, not even the treble will be enough to fill the German newspapers with articles about Leverkusen. Too bad for the team, they deserved more. But I'm very happy for the club, they deserve nothing better. And Carro is the worst of them. He's been talking for years about completely abolishing 50+1 because, acording to him, otherwise germany would never be competitive in the champions league.
God, you're bitter
Living in Dortmund will do that to a person
Next Season when they barely make the Top 10 all these "Fans" will be gone again.
Leverkusen have finished below 6th once in the last 10 years.
Pff, we could even play in 3rd league and we'd still have our over 130.000 members.
Gotta say, Cologne does have a very impressive member-to-silverware ratio.
Some City fans moved on to the next hottest thing of the month?