On the road in Europe: Nowhere is too far

Ludogorets Rasgrad and AEK Larnaca were down in black-and-white. Only football fans could imagine why these clubs drew such an enthusiastic response. The other opponents for the Werkself in Group A  were FC Zürich. Good, Zürich is a nice city. The Letzigrund - an old jewel of a stadium. That's not unfamiliar.  But who has been to Rasgrad in Bulgaria or to Larnaca in Cyprus to watch football? There you go.

Rasgrad and Larnaca represent new (football) venues that have to be visited – and  for 'go anywhere' fans like Tobias, Robert, Kevin and René that means two new destinations on their personal Black and Red ground hopper list to be ticked off. The four lads from Leverkusen have watched Werkself European games together for at least five years and they haven't missed a single one including those away from home. And, of course, it was also clear: After a year away from European competition, the quartet were already beginning to feel withdrawal symptoms.

They could hardly wait for the draw in Monaco on 31 August, which they watched together on TV.  Next to the laptop, there were four smart phones at hand, ready to go into immediate action after Hernan Crespo had completed the draw. They say the early bird catches the worm and they wanted to get in sharpish to book flights at a reasonable price. "Because fixing the dates for the away games took some time that gave us the opportunity to look at possible routes," said Tobias. For the trip to Zürich,  NK12, the umbrella organisation for Bayer 04 fans, had organised a train and that news came through during the draw.

However, Rasgrad was on the agenda for the first time: The trip to Bulgaria in the middle of September turned into an extended five-day tour that started on a Tuesday. After arriving in Varna, just 16 kilometres away from the Black Sea coast, the small travel group settled into their hotel and hung out a couple of black and red flags and banners on the balcony. On the matchday, they had to travel 150 kilometres from Varna to Rasgrad. The lads took a taxi for the return journey. "€100 for around 300 kilometres was a fair deal for us," said Tobias. The match at the Ludogorets Arena ended in a 3-2 win for Bayer 04, was another destination for the lads and once again showed that a crowd of around 120 Black and Red fans were able to produce a decent atmosphere.  "Incredibly impressive", was the view of Tobias in his assessment of the travelling Leverkusen support. For him and his friends, the journey back home only started on Saturday morning.

The second stage of the European tour followed at the end of October: To Zürich in the 'samba train'. "The journey there was incredible," said Tobias. "Everybody was dancing, celebrating and singing together. Where would you experience that anywhere else other than with football?" The game at FC Zürich did end in a 3-2 defeat but there was a fantastic atmosphere amongst the 1,500 Black and Red fans at the Letzigrund over the course of the 90 minutes. And the spirits were soon lifted again on the return journey in the train.

The challenges and imponderables of fan tours like that were evident in Cyprus. Sometimes instant responses in terms of flight tickets can prove to be non-starters: As ever, Tobias and his mates were quick to book, albeit unaware that the game away to AEK would be played in Nicosia rather than Larnaca. Even more unpleasant was the fact the airline the lads wanted to fly with went bump and all flights were cancelled. Bad luck and nothing could be done about it. But anyone really willing to travel anywhere will not be put off by such a disappointment. An alternative was quickly found and Bayer 04 provided four coaches in Larnaca to take the Leverkusen fans from there to Nicosia. Before that, in the middle of December, Tobias, Kevin, Robert and René set off from Leverkusen via Aachen to Brussels to catch a flight to Milan. After a short stopover, they took the next flight to Larnaca. In the Cypriot port city, the Werkself fans took up residence in a villa and got in the mood for the matchday. On the Thursday, the Bayer 04 coaches took all of the Bayer 04 supporters from Larnaca to the venue in Nicosia that was some 60 kilometres away. "The 5-1 win felt good. And, in spite of the fact the stadium was sparsely populated, the 300 fans in our block did a really good job," recalled Tobias.

Even with all the enthusiasm and fun, the tours across Europe are certainly tiring as the quartet were ready to admit. But it's all worth it for Bayer. Clocking up thousands of kilometres to support your team where a feast of football is not necessarily to be expected - that is evidence of true passion. Of course, that will all start again with the next fixture for Bayer 04 in the Europa League: The Round of 32 takes the Werkself to Krasnodar in the south of Russia on 14 February. Tobias, Robert, Kevin and René have obviously already booked the tickets.