On May 18, 2024, at the BayArena in Leverkusen, captain Lukas Hrádecký lifted the Meisterschale — the trophy awarded to Germany's Bundesliga champions — for the first time in the club's 120-year history. The season that preceded that moment was unlike anything German football had ever produced. Bayer Leverkusen became the first team in Bundesliga history to complete an entire season unbeaten — 28 wins and 6 draws across 34 matches — and extended that run to 51 consecutive matches without defeat across all competitions, breaking a 59-year European record held by Benfica. They did it scoring 17 goals in stoppage time. They did it coming from behind, from the last minute, and from the impossible. And they did it under a first-time head coach who had never managed a senior club before he walked through the BayArena doors in October 2022 — with the team sitting in 17th place.
The Curse: Twenty Years of Neverkusen
To understand what the 2023–24 season meant, you have to understand what came before it. Bayer Leverkusen are one of the most unusual clubs in European football: founded in 1904 by workers at the Bayer pharmaceutical company, privately owned by that same company as an exemption to the Bundesliga's 50+1 rule, and perpetually competitive without ever winning the thing that mattered most. The nickname "Neverkusen" — a play on the club's name and their tendency to fall at the final hurdle — was born from the agony of the 1999–2000 season, when a Michael Ballack own goal on the final day cost them the Bundesliga title on goal difference, having needed only a draw at already-safe Unterhaching to become champions.
What followed two years later turned a running joke into a defining mythology. In the spring of 2002, Leverkusen were on the brink of something extraordinary: three points clear at the top of the Bundesliga with three games remaining, through to the DFB-Pokal final, and battling through to the UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid. Over eleven days in May, all three slipped away — the league title on the final day to Dortmund by one point, the cup to Schalke 4–2, and the Champions League final 2–1 to a Zinedine Zidane volley in Glasgow. The club became known across Germany as Vizekusen — Runner-up- kusen — and the parallel "Neverkusen" entered English-speaking football vocabulary. By 2024, they had been Bundesliga runners-up five times without ever winning the title.
The Appointment: 17th Place and a First-Time Coach
On October 5, 2022, Bayer Leverkusen sacked head coach Gerardo Seoane with the club sitting in 17th place in the Bundesliga after eight matches — second from bottom, facing the genuine prospect of relegation. The man they appointed as his replacement had never managed a senior club in his career. Xabi Alonso had only coached Real Sociedad's B team before arriving at Leverkusen — a background that made his appointment the most scrutinised, and ultimately most vindicated, managerial gamble in recent Bundesliga history. His first match ended 4–0 against Schalke. His second was a 3–0 defeat to Porto. His third, a 5–1 humiliation at Eintracht Frankfurt. The project was not linear. But it was already underway.
Alonso stabilised the team through the winter of 2022–23, ending the season in sixth place and qualifying for the Europa League. In the summer of 2023, he made two signings that would define everything that followed: Granit Xhaka from Arsenal, who provided the midfield discipline and passing range the system required, and Álex Grimaldo from Benfica on a free transfer — who would finish the 2023–24 season as the Bundesliga's leading assist provider with 13.
The Season: From First Day to Last
Leverkusen opened the 2023–24 Bundesliga campaign on August 19, 2023, with a 3–2 win over RB Leipzig. They would not lose another competitive match until the Europa League final against Atalanta in Dublin on May 22, 2024 — 51 matches later. The unbeaten Bundesliga season was confirmed on Matchday 29 with a 5–0 victory over Werder Bremen on April 14 — the earliest a team had ever clinched the Bundesliga title in only the third instance in history. Leverkusen finished the Bundesliga season with 90 points — the second-highest total in the competition's history, bettered only by Jupp Heynckes's Bayern Munich in 2012–13 — and a goals-scored record of 89 for the club, conceding just 24. They finished 17 points ahead of second-placed Stuttgart. Bayern Munich, the reigning champions, finished third.
Final Bundesliga Table 2023–24
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 🏆 | Bayer Leverkusen | 34 | 28 | 6 | 0 | 89 | 24 | +65 | 90 |
| 2 | VfB Stuttgart | 34 | 23 | 4 | 7 | 79 | 39 | +40 | 73 |
| 3 | Bayern Munich | 34 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 94 | 45 | +49 | 72 |
| 4 | RB Leipzig | 34 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 77 | 51 | +26 | 63 |
| 5 | Borussia Dortmund | 34 | 18 | 6 | 10 | 62 | 51 | +11 | 60 |
| 6 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 34 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 51 | 42 | +9 | 55 |
Final Bundesliga standings 2023–24. Leverkusen's 90 points is the second-highest total in Bundesliga history. Their goal difference of +65 and 0 losses are both records for a title-winning side in Germany.
The Squad: Who Built the Invincibles
| Player | Pos | Bundesliga Goals | Bundesliga Assists | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victor Boniface | ST | 14 | 8 | Top scorer; missed 10 weeks through injury mid-season |
| Florian Wirtz | AM | 11 | 11 | Bundesliga Player of the Season; 3× Player of the Month |
| Álex Grimaldo | LB | 10 | 13 | Bundesliga assists leader; signed on a free from Benfica |
| Patrik Schick | ST | 7 | 3 | Covered Boniface during injury; scored multiple late winners |
| Granit Xhaka | CM | 4 | 9 | 93% pass completion — second-best in the league |
| Jonas Hofmann | RW | 5 | 7 | Versatile and consistent; key to pressing structure |
| Jeremie Frimpong | RB | 5 | 8 | Right-back partnership with Grimaldo among best in Europe |
| Robert Andrich | CM | 3 | 4 | Scored the 97th-minute equaliser against Stuttgart to keep the streak alive |
| Jonathan Tah | CB | 6 | 2 | 6 Bundesliga goals from centre-back; set-piece threat |
| Lukas Hrádecký | GK | 0 | 0 | Captain; 16 clean sheets — most in the division |
Bundesliga stats only. Hrádecký's 16 clean sheets were the most in the Bundesliga in 2023–24. Three players — Boniface, Wirtz and Grimaldo — reached double figures in goals, a feat not achieved by any other club that season.
The Late Goals: A Season of Added Time
The defining characteristic of Leverkusen's season was not dominance — though they were dominant — but the refusal to accept defeat. They scored 8 goals in second-half stoppage time across the Bundesliga season alone, a record for the competition. Across all competitions, they netted 17 times after the 90th minute. Goal.com tracked their most dramatic late rescues — from Robert Andrich's stoppage-time equaliser against Stuttgart to Josip Stanišić's 97th-minute goal against Roma — confirming Leverkusen's 17th stoppage-time strike of the season as the defining narrative of the campaign: Leverkusen did not just win matches; they refused to lose them.
The minute of Robert Andrich's equaliser against VfB Stuttgart on April 6, 2024 — a 2–2 draw that kept the unbeaten run alive with three matches remaining. Without it, Leverkusen's historic season would have ended with a loss and a record never achieved. Xabi Alonso said afterwards he had never experienced a season like it. "What we have done this season is unbelievable; we will always remember this." — Xabi Alonso
The Record: 51 Matches and a Broken Benfica Mark
On May 9, 2024, following a 2–2 draw against Roma in the Europa League semi-final second leg — another stoppage-time rescue, this time from Josip Stanišić in the 97th minute — Leverkusen set a new European record for the longest unbeaten run in continental competition. The run broke Benfica's record of 48 games undefeated, set between 1963 and 1965 — a mark that had stood for 59 years. Leverkusen's sequence would eventually reach 51 competitive matches before ending with a 3–0 defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League final in Dublin. That loss ended the dream of the treble. The following week, they won the DFB-Pokal against Kaiserslautern, completing a domestic double and ending the season with just one defeat in 53 competitive matches.
The Numbers Behind the Historic Season
| Stat | Leverkusen 2023–24 | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Bundesliga record | 28W 6D 0L | First team in Bundesliga history to complete a full season unbeaten |
| Points | 90 | Second-highest in Bundesliga history — bettered only by Bayern 2012–13 (91 pts) |
| Goal difference | +65 | Record for a Bundesliga title-winning side |
| Goals scored | 89 | Club record — three players reached double figures (Boniface 14, Wirtz 11, Grimaldo 10) |
| Goals conceded | 24 | Club record low — fewer than one per game across 34 matches |
| Clean sheets | 16 | Most in the Bundesliga in 2023–24 (Hrádecký) |
| Points per game | 2.64 | Best average of any team in Europe's top five leagues in 2023–24 |
| Stoppage-time goals (BL) | 8 | New Bundesliga record for goals in second-half stoppage time |
| All-competition unbeaten | 51 matches | New European record — broke Benfica's 59-year mark of 48 games |
| Title sealed | Matchday 29 | One of only three times a Bundesliga title has been clinched this early |
| Title margin | 17 points | Over second-placed Stuttgart — Bayern finished third for the first time since 2012 |
Xabi Alonso: From 17th to History
The story of the 2023–24 season cannot be told without confronting the improbability of the man who orchestrated it. Xabi Alonso had never managed a senior club before October 2022. He arrived at Leverkusen with his team second from bottom, was beaten 5–1 in his third match, and had every reasonable justification for a cautious, defensive approach. Instead, he built one of the most attack-minded title-winning sides in Bundesliga history — a team that scored 89 goals, averaged 2.64 points per game (the best return in Europe's top five leagues) and conceded fewer than one goal per match across the entire campaign. His philosophy was explicit from the beginning: high-intensity pressing, positional fluidity, and a collective belief that no game was finished until it was finished. The late goals were not luck. They were the product of a team that had been coached, specifically, to believe in those final minutes.
Alonso's final word on the season came in the DFB-Pokal final against Kaiserslautern, four days after the Europa League loss — a match Leverkusen won 1–0 to complete the domestic double. Speaking after lifting the cup, Alonso said: "In the end, to win like that meant we showed spirit, we fought for the fans, for the club. It is huge success to win the double. We will remember this in the future". Alonso left Leverkusen in the summer of 2025 for Real Madrid, taking with him a record of two titles (Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal), an unbeaten season, and the gratitude of a fanbase that had waited 120 years for exactly this.
Why This Season Will Not Be Forgotten
There are five clubs in the history of European football's top divisions to have completed a full domestic season unbeaten: AC Milan in Serie A 1991–92, Arsenal in the Premier League 2003–04, Juventus in Serie A 2011–12, Celtic in the Scottish Premiership 2016–17, and Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga 2023–24. Each of those campaigns occupies a permanent chapter in the history of their league. Leverkusen's is distinguished by two things the others are not: the late-goal drama that punctuated almost every other week, and the weight of history that preceded it.
Arsenal were already champions before their Invincibles season. Juventus had won the previous year. AC Milan were a club with nine European Cups. Leverkusen had never won the Bundesliga. They had never won a major domestic trophy since 1993. They had been runners-up so often, and in such painful circumstances, that the mockery had become affectionate — even self-directed. Their fans had chanted "we'll never be champions." Their parent company had trademarked the word Vizekusen.
And then, in one season, all of that became irrelevant. Not just reversed — irrelevant. Because what Leverkusen produced in 2023–24 was not merely a first title. It was the most remarkable title campaign in the history of their league. Xabi Alonso said it himself, in the simplest possible terms: "To remain undefeated is extraordinary — unbelievable. Our team has written itself into Bundesliga history. In 20 years we will look back and all be able to say: 'wow, we were there'" — Xabi Alonso, after the final match of the 2023–24 season. Neverkusen is never more.