The 2021-22 Bundesliga season has come to its conclusion, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, Bayern Munich once again won the league title by an enormous margin. At this point, Bayern can be all but penciled in for a league title every year for the foreseeable future... or can they?
Not many will have noticed, but there is a team which, if everything goes well during the off-season, might turn out to be Bayern's closest challengers next season. This team is Bayer Leverkusen, who closed out their Bundesliga campaign with a 2-1 victory over Freiburg. Exequiel Palacios scored Leverkusen's winning goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time. With the win, Leverkusen finished third in the league on 64 points, 13 behind Bayern. However, despite the large margin between themselves and Bayern, there is cause for optimism at the BayArena.
Although he will not return until the middle of next season, the play of Florian Wirtz following his return from a torn ACL will be crucial if Leverkusen are to make a serious title push. Prior to his injury, Wirtz was looking like a generational prospect in the making. At just 19, Wirtz seemed to be on a trajectory which would have seen him become not only an elite player at his peak, but even a potential future Ballon d'Or winner. Of course, a torn ACL is the one injury over which there will always be question marks over a player upon his return. That said, if Wirtz comes back at his previous level and continues his ascent accordingly, the sky is the limit - both for his career and his club.
Following a remarkable breakout season in which he established himself as one of the world's leading centre-forwards, Patrik Schick has established himself as the second of the team's two cornerstones alongside Wirtz. Sporting director Simon Rolfes has already confirmed that Leverkusen will not entertain any off-season request to sign the Czech, fending off potential interest from a number of top European clubs. After netting 24 league goals this season, Schick might even be a dark-horse contender for next season's European Golden Shoe. That may in turn make it far more difficult for Leverkusen to continue retaining Schick's services; however, as long as he remains at Leverkusen alongside a fully-fit Wirtz, their window remains open.
One important point about this Leverkusen team is the fact that all their key players are relatively young. This season, almost all of Leverkusen's best players were 26 or younger. In addition to Schick and Wirtz, other young players who were major contributors this season and figure to continue doing so going forward include Jonathan Tah, Moussa Diaby, Jeremie Frimpong, and Edmond Tapsoba. Diaby has already been linked with a move to Arsenal as well as a possible return to hometown club Paris Saint-Germain. This is a roster brimming with potential - if Bayern were to have a rare down year next season, the door might just be ever so slightly open for Leverkusen to take advantage.
There's no question that taking down the juggernaut that is Bayern is probably the mightiest task in the four major domestic leagues. However, now that Borussia Dortmund have lost Erling Haaland to Manchester City and RB Leipzig are still rebuilding after seeing former head coach Julian Nagelsmann leave for Bayern, Leverkusen may just have a puncher's chance to push Bayern all the way next season.
Certainly, no one is having any delusions - Leverkusen will not be favourites over Bayern by a long way. However, if Die Werkself can keep the "sharks" circling their club at bay for just one more transfer window and their young players continue to develop with one or two having a breakout season, something might just come of that. Add in Schick's continued dominance in front of goal and Wirtz coming back as good as before, and now there'd really be something going.
Of course, it has to be noted that for Leverkusen to win the league next season, they'll also need a healthy dose of luck - practically everything has to go perfectly. But as things stand right now, Bayer Leverkusen are quite possibly in position for their best season in many years.
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