Bayern Munich's incredible dominance of the Bundesliga has finally come to an end but one of their players still got their hands on the trophy.
The Bavarian giants won 11 titles in a row during a glittering spell from 2012/13 to 2022/23.
But Xabi Alonso's sensational Bayer Leverkusen side have ended the era, lifting the title for the very first time in their history on Sunday following a thumping 5-0 win over Werder Bremen at the BayArena.
Victor Boniface and Granit Xhaka were both on target before Florian Wirtz bagged a first senior hat-trick.
Leverkusen are unbeaten in all competitions and won the league by 16 points.
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Yet in a bizarre twist, one of the players who helped them achieve the success is contracted to Bayern Munich.
Born in Munich, Josip Stanisic signed on loan for Leverkusen from the Bavarians in the summer and has made 29 appearances in all competitions.
His only goal for Leverkusen was the opener in a 3-0 win over his parent club back in February and he refused to celebrate after scoring.
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But, speaking at the time, Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel explained that he is not a fan of the rule which allowed Stanisic to play.
He said: "In England, there's a nice rule where when you loan a player out, they can't play against you. For me that makes more sense.
"I experienced it often in my career, that a player comes back to haunt the team - the rule unfortunately doesn't exist in Germany. Today we were the ones to suffer from this.
"I saw Stani earlier and congratulated him, but he's a Bayer Leverkusen player now. That's all I can say."
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The 24-year-old has become only the second player in the history of the Bundesliga to win the league in two consecutive seasons with two different sides.
The last man to do it before Stanisic was August Starek back in 1968 and 1969.
Topics: Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga
Josh Lawless