Summary of the 2023/2024 Bundesliga season
The 2023/2024 season in Germany's top league, the Bundesliga, is over, and here we take a closer look at what happened this season, both at the top and the bottom of the table, as well as reviewing the top scorers.
Champions - Bayer Leverkusen!
For the first time ever, Bayer Leverkusen managed to win the Bundesliga, thereby breaking Bayern Munich's streak of eleven consecutive league titles. Not only did they achieve this, but they also went through the entire league season without losing a single match, something no team has ever done before in the Bundesliga. In total, they had 28 wins and 6 draws, but despite being unbeaten, they didn't manage to break Bayern's points record from the 2012/2013 season when Bayern amassed a total of 91 points.It's not just in the league that Bayer Leverkusen has been unbeatable; they also went unbeaten through the German Cup up to the final (which is played this Saturday against Kaiserslautern) and the entire UEFA Europa League up to the final. They had a streak of 51 unbeaten matches, starting in May 2023, but the streak ended yesterday when they lost 0-3 to Atalanta in the UEFA Europa League final. Although the loss in this final may sting the most at the moment, they also missed the chance to break Bayern Munich's record of 53 consecutive unbeaten matches set between 2012 and 2014.
There are many to praise after Bayer Leverkusen's fantastic season, but of course, it is manager Xabi Alonso who primarily grabs the headlines. Despite numerous rumours of big clubs wanting him as their coach, Alonso has already made it clear that he will stay at least one more season with the club. Among the players, it's mainly the German super talent Florian Wirtz, Nigerian striker Victor Boniface, and Spanish fullback Álex Grimaldo (10 goals and 14 assists in the league!) who have impressed the most individually, but of course, the entire team deserves praise.
Stuttgart finished second in the league (more on that below), and Bayern Munich finished third, followed by RB Leipzig and Dortmund, and all these four clubs will play in the UEFA Champions League next season. The teams relegated to Bundesliga 2 were Bochum (relagated after losing qualification game against Fortuna Düsseldorf), Köln, and Darmstadt.
Under and over achieving clubs
Bayern Munich is, of course, the club that underperformed the most this season. They entered the season with eleven consecutive Bundesliga titles and had also signed Harry Kane to strengthen the attack, making them the heavy favourites, but they only finished third in the league and were never even close to winning the title. What likely stings the most for Harry Kane is that he joined Bayern Munich specifically to win titles (something he never did with Tottenham), and this season Bayern missed out on the league title. In fact, Bayern didn't win a single title this season, something that hasn't happened since the 2011/2012 season.Just as clear as Bayern was the team that underperformed the most, Stuttgart is the club that surprised the most positively. Last season, Stuttgart had to go through qualification to stay in the Bundesliga, and this season they finished second. Just like with Leverkusen, the whole team deserves praise for this achievement, but especially the striking duo Serhou Guirassy and Deniz Undav should be highlighted. Guirassy scored a total of 28 goals, despite missing six matches due to injury and the African Cup of Nations, and when he was absent, Undav stepped up as the primary goal scorer and offensive weapon. Undav scored 18 goals and provided 10 assists. It will likely be difficult to keep Guirassy away from the big clubs this summer, but if they manage to retain their striking duo, Stuttgart will be interesting to follow both in the Bundesliga and the UEFA Champions League next season.
Top Scorer - Harry Kane!
While Bayern Munich underperformed, no one can blame Harry Kane for it. Kane was brought in as the missing piece after Robert Lewandowski left (Sadio Mané failed to replace the Pole last season), and he delivered with 36 goals in the league (38.3% of Bayern's total goals) and scored four hat-tricks. With this, Kane won the top scorer title quite comfortably, but even though he is surely happy to win the Bundesliga golden boot, it hardly compensates for the fact that he didn't win any title with the club.Second in the scoring list was the already mentioned Serhou Guirassy with his 28 goals, eight goals behind Kane. He started with a bang, scoring 14 goals in the first eight matches and leading the scoring chart at the beginning of the season. Even though his goal-scoring pace slowed, his 28 goals in total are incredibly impressive.
Third in the scoring list we find the Belgian Loïs Openda with 24 goals. Considering this was Openda's first season with RB Leipzig, this result is also extremely impressive, and with the young, still-developing team that RB Leipzig has, he will undoubtedly be one of the top contenders to challenge Kane for the league's top scorer title next season.
The youngest player in the upper part of the scoring list is another RB Leipzig player, the 20-year-old Slovenian super talent Benjamin Sesko, who scored 14 goals. It was also Sesko's first season with RB Leipzig, making his achievement even more impressive.
In Conclusion...
This season has been one of the most interesting in the Bundesliga for many years, and the reasons for this have already been mentioned: Bayer Leverkusen's first Bundesliga title and unbeaten streak, Bayern Munich's weak season without titles, and Stuttgart's journey from a bottom team to a final second place.Next season, it will be highly interesting to follow the top of the league, which at least for now feels like it has more contenders for the title than in a long time. Can Bayer Leverkusen continue to deliver, or will they lose their "mojo" now that their unbeaten streak is broken? Will Harry Kane finally win a title in his career (if England doesn't win the Euros this summer of course, giving him his title already)? Can Stuttgart deliver another strong season? Will RB Leipzig's young team continue to develop into a title contender? Will Borussia Dortmund, who are actually in the Champions League final where they will face Real Madrid on the 1st of June, step up and fight at the top of the league again? The Bundesliga, which has been dominated by Bayern Munich for so many years, feels refreshingly uncertain again.
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