Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball

Bayer 04 Leverkusen (in German: Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH), also known as Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The club competes in the Bundesliga, the top category of German football. It plays its home matches at the BayArena stadium, which has a capacity of 30,210 spectators.

The club was founded in 1904 by employees of the German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, whose headquarters are located in Leverkusen and from which the club takes its name. It was formerly the best-known department of TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a sports club whose members also take part in athletics, gymnastics, basketball, field handball and other sports, such as RTHC Bayer Leverkusen (rowing, tennis and hockey). In 1999, the football department separated from the sports club and is now an independent entity formally called Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH. Bayer was promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in 1979, and has remained in the top division ever since. The club's main colors are red and black, both used as the main shirt color, with red and black stripes also serving as home colors.

Bayer Leverkusen had been five-time runners-up in the Bundesliga without winning the competition, a record in German football until the 2024 season, when they became champions for the first time in their history without losing a single match under the direction of Xabi Alonso, setting a new record in German and European football, after 51 official matches unbeaten. The club also has in its honors list one 2. Bundesliga in 1979 (North Group), one UEFA Cup in 1988, and two DFB-Pokal in 1993 and 2024, the season in which they achieved the "double". It has played twelve editions of the UEFA Champions League, finishing runner-up in 2002, losing 2-1 to Real Madrid in the final. They were also finalists in the 2023-24 UEFA Europa League.

Its local rivals are 1. FC Köln, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Fortuna Düsseldorf, with whom it plays the "Rhine Derbies".