Bayer Leverkusen's success is a reminder of the community power of football | Bayer Leverkusen

TO corner from the left, seven minutes into added time. Croatian defender Josip Stanišić rises to the near post. His header is too firm to be described as a glancing shot, but he is well directed and crosses the goal for the equaliser. The black and red corner of Signal Iduna Park explodes. Several minutes after the game they were still celebrating with their players. The Bundesliga title is already won, but there should be no doubt that Bayer Leverkusen worry about his undefeated record.

Until then, there had been a sense of anticlimax about Borussia Dortmund against Leverkusen. What seemed about a month ago to be the game in which Xabi Alonso's team would win the title, became, thanks to Bayern Munich's wasting a two-goal lead against Heidenheim two weeks ago, the first party of your five game victory lap. Dortmund, for its part, was declining after Wednesday's game. Victory in the quarterfinals of the Champions League about Atlético. Fifth place is all but assured and, with Germany looking very likely to have five Champions League places next season, it doesn't matter much if they catch up with RB Leipzig, who are two points clear in fourth place.

The truth is that the game had been irregular, a bit in a bad mood; There was a clear sense that the players, if not going through the motions, were at least aware that the league was no longer the priority. But then Niclas Füllkrug put Dortmund ahead with nine minutes remaining and Leverkusen found themselves with something to fight for. Never before had any team gone undefeated for an entire Bundesliga season; They are also undefeated in the DFB Cup, in the final of which they will face second-tier Kaiserslautern, and in the Europa League, where Roma awaits in the semi-finals. Patrik Schick and Victor Boniface came on, the pace changed, a kind of muscle memory was activated and suddenly it became clear why Leverkusen have had the success they have had this season. For the twentieth time this season, they scored a goal after the 85th minute of the game and their flawless streak was extended.

For Leverkusen this is a dream season. On five occasions they have finished runners-up in the Bundesliga. In 2001-02 they achieved the silver treble by finishing second in the league and losing in both the Pokal and Champions League finals. But Nickname of Neverkusen It just makes what's happening this season even sweeter. Given the backing of pharmaceutical giant Bayer, which clearly helped during the Covid lockdown, this may not be the fairy tale some would describe it as. But there is still something moving about seeing a club win something for the first time after 120 years of history. It is not at all the routine Bundesliga success that has become the norm for Bayern Munich.

The juxtaposition of Bayer's success and Athletic Club wins the Copa del Rey For the first time in 40 years, the banks of Bilbao's rivers became a long mass of red and white as they made their traditional victory procession on a barge, it felt revealing. This is what football still has the power to do. It can bring a feeling of collective joy to provincial cities, confirming a community in its identity. You don't need to have any affiliation with either city to be moved by the scenes.

And then you consider the reality of modern football. There are protests against ticket prices in most of the first division clubs. There is a growing perception that clubs care less about traditional fans, those who have been buying their season tickets and turning up week after week for years, for whom the club is an integral part of their identity, a birthright passed down from generation to generation. through the generations, than for the tourist fans, for whom a game is a once-in-a-season, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime, gift; the type of fan who is willing to pay an exorbitant price for a ticket and then inflates it with a spree in the club shop.

The Premier League, despite recent results in Europe, is the most popular league in the world. Part of its success is the interest it generates abroad and, given that it is made up of foreign players, owners and coaches, it would be foolish to turn away foreign fans.

But at the same time, it seems like football is entering dangerous territory. One of the great strengths of European football is that clubs are organic entities, not empty franchises. They have value and meaning rooted in the local community; It's not just business. Balancing that with the globalized context is enormously difficult; A constant desire for growth and an obsession with the end result is probably not the best way to achieve it.

It is naive, of course, to think that most modern owners care about anything other than profits. But equally, it's impossible to look at Leverkusen's success and the joy it has brought to an ordinary, mid-sized city on the banks of the Rhine and not think that's what football should really be about.

This is an excerpt from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, Guardian US' weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have any questions for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.comand will answer the best in a future edition.