The joy of the German city of Leverkusen when its club won the league for the first time in its history may be an ordinary and natural joy by the standards of football in the whole world… a joy that was experienced by many cities in the world, and its people took to the streets to celebrate the victory, even if they were not all football fans… and despite everything… That was the joy of Leverkusen last Sunday evening, very exceptional for a city that had owned a club since 1904 that ranked second in five seasons, and finally won the league after a long wait… and many in the world stopped in front of ten thousand men, women, young men and girls on Bismarck Street in the colors and flags of the Bayer Leverkusen club, rejoicing and celebrating. They decided to name Xabi Alonso, the technical director of their team, in his honor. Thus, the city of Leverkusen joins the list of German cities that won the league, led by Munich, Dortmund, Mönchengladbach, Bremen, and Hamburg. Not including the capital, Berlin, which was the last football championship it won in 1931. Berlin remains. Thus, it is one of the very few capitals in the world that does not have football victories. There are other capitals whose victories are not comparable to the victories of other cities in the same country, such as Rome, whose clubs have won the Italian League 5 times, compared to 43 for Torino, 38 for Milan, and 8 for Genoa.
And Casablanca, which won the Moroccan league 37 times, compared to 14 for the capital, Rabat… And on the contrary… there are capitals that almost monopolized the league championship in their country… 105 championships for Budapest in Hungary… 59 championships for Cairo in Egypt… and 52 championships for Moscow in Russia… and 35 Championship for Mexico City in Mexico.. There are also capitals that won the league and competed with other cities in the same country.. 21 for London compared to 29 for Manchester and 28 for Liverpool in England.. 46 for Madrid and 27 for Barcelona in Spain.. 12 for Paris and 9 for Marseille in France.. 15 for Tokyo and 8 For Hiroshima and Kashima in Japan… and 25 for Accra and 24 for Kumasi in Ghana… What is certain is that there is no single agreed-upon explanation, whether in the countries whose capitals excelled or the countries whose capitals did not win… The people of London, for example, are still determined to describe their city as a capital. Football in the world, despite the fact that it is less victorious than Manchester and Liverpool… and the people of Barcelona are still accusing General Franco of being the author of Real Madrid’s victories through oppression and power, despite the death of Franco in 1975… and the championships of Turin and Milan cannot be easily interpreted as the result of war and hatred for the capital, because the two cities are richer than Rome. .. In contrast to the situation in Hungary, Egypt and Russia, whose capitals monopolize the spotlight and attention.. Despite the power and influence of Berlin, Munich remains the capital of German football.