Nigeria duo, Victor Boniface and Nathan Tella, Morocco’s Amine Adli, Ivory Coast’s Odilon Kossounou and Burkina Faso’s Edmond Tapsoba have secured Bayer Leverkusen’s first-ever Bundesliga title in their 109 years of existence.
Xabi Alonso’s men sealed their champions status with five matches to go, after a 5-0 thrashing of Werder Bremen at the BayArena on Sunday.
The African quintet started the crucial game on Sunday with Boniface breaking the deadlock from the penalty spot in the 25th minute and he provided an assist for Granit Xhaka to double the lead on the hour-mark.
The contribution stretched Boniface’s tally to 11 goals and eight assists in his debut campaign in Germany.
The duo of Tapsoba and Kossounou contributed to Leverkusen’s brilliant defence as they kept their third straight clean sheet in the Bundesliga.
Adli played the first 45 minutes and was replaced at the break by Florian Wirtz who went on to score a second-half hat-trick while Tella made way for Jeremie Frimpong in the 62nd minute.
Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten in all competitions this season and they lead the German top-flight with 16 points above second-placed Bayern Munich with five matches remaining this campaign.
Founded in 1904, Leverkusen gained promotion to the Bundesliga in 1979 and they finished second on five occasions before this year’s success.
Boniface, Tella, Adli, Tapsoba and Kossounou are in the running for a treble this season with Bayer Leverkusen still in the UEFA Europa League and the German Cup final.
Xabi Alonso’s men will hope to maintain their 2-0 lead against West Ham United when they face the Premier League club in the return leg of their Europa League quarter-final game on Thursday.
