n EVERKUSEn
Indeed, Leverkusen had more of the ball,
more shots and the better chances. But they
didn’t have Zinedine Zidane. “A moment
of pure genius,” laments Toppmoller, of the
Frenchman’s 45th-minute stunner which
ensured that the trophy would be Madrid’s.
At the final whistle, Leverkusen’s players
flopped to the turf as the realisation of their
horror treble sunk in. For some, the worst was
still to come: five of Leverkusen’s squad went
to the 2002 World Cup with Germany. There,
they fell at the final hurdle again, with Brazil’s
Ronaldo their nemesis in Yokohama.
The following term, Toppmoller welcomed
back a much-changed group. Star performers
Ballack and Ze Roberto both joined Bayern
Munich, where they immediately secureda domestic double. But those who remained
at the BayArena still hadn’t gotten over their
scarring events of May.
“The players returned looking empty,” sighs
Toppmoller. “Especially those who’d played
at the World Cup. The previous year had
been so intense and we hadn’t recovered.”
The new season would prove catastrophic.
Toppmoller was sacked in February, just nine
months after that Champions League final,
with Die Werkself sitting just a point above
the relegation zone. “We regret this decision
because Klaus Toppmoller led the club into
the international spotlight last season,” read
a statement so devoid of emotion it could
only have been penned by Germans. “But
because of our precarious situation, no other
choice remained.”
Of those who stuck around, many never
came that close to glory ever again. Bernd
Schneider finished his career without a single
winners’ medal. Leverkusen haven’t laid their
hands on a trophy since the 1993 DFB-Pokal.
Are they truly cursed?
“That’s nonsense,” says Toppmoller. “They
are a club that continually have to sell their
best players to bigger teams. Every year that
happens. We missed our chance to win titles
and then our team was picked apart. Had we
stayed together, who knows what we might
have achieved.
“Everyone says that just wasn’t our year but
they’re wrong. That was our year. It’s still the
most successful season in Bayer Leverkusen’s
history and people often forget that. Yes, we
lost in each after coming so close to winning
everything, but it was the greatest season
that many of those players ever had. It was
a golden period for every single one of us.”NEVERKUSEN:
THE HAT-TRICK
OF HORROR
“AGAInST MADRID,
WE WERE BETTER –
WE OVERWHELMED
THEM. I WAS PROUD
OF MY PLAYERS”
FourFourTwo July 2022 53