One player, above all, would like to change that: Leon Bailey. At the start of February last year in the second half of the 2018/19 season, the Jamaican cancelled out the goal scored by Leon Goretzka. Bailey scored directly from a free kick (53’).The Peter Bosz team won the game 3-1 thanks to goals in the second half from Kevin Volland (63’) and Lucas Alario (89’).
The next match between the Black and Reds and FC Bayern was at the end of November. The Werkself travelled to the Bavarian capital on the back of a four-game unbeaten run. Bailey scored the opening goal after just ten minutes in a high-quality encounter. Thomas Müller equalised after the half-hour mark (34’) but the 22-year-old replied just one minute later to net the winner at 2-1. That was the fourth goal for the Jamaican in a competitive match against the record champions.
There is definitely room for improvement in the overall record of the Werkself against FC Bayern. Before the two above-mentioned clashes, the Black and Reds had only won 17 out of 87 games. Those previous meetings have included one or two great moments.

After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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After a break of almost two weeks, the Bayer 04 Women begin preparing for games in 2026 on Sunday. Bayer04.de provides an overview of the dates at the start of the second half of the season.
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Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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