The following legends will be in Leverkusen at the weekend: Réne Adler, Dimitar Berbatov, Fred Bockholt, Matthias Brücken, Klaus Bruckmann, Bum-kun Cha, Christoph Daum, Andreas Fehse, Jürgen Gelsdorf, Harry Gniech, Falko Götz, Markus Happe, Heinz Heitmann, Dieter Herzog, Thomas Hörster, Juan, Gerd Kentschke, Stefan Kießling, Ulf Kirsten, Peter Klimke, Willi Korth, Willibert Kremer, Hans-Peter Lehnhoff, Ioan Lupescu, Erik Meijer, Klaus Meul, Markus Münch, Jens Nowotny, Paulo Sergio, Walter Posner, Knut Reinhardt, Stefan Reinartz, Simon Rolfes, Hans-Jürgen Scheinert, Bernd Schneider, Christian Schreier, Klaus Schulze, Andreas Thom, Klaus Toppmöller, Dieter Trzolek, Matthias Valentin, Rudi Völler, Rüdiger Vollborn, Christian Wörns, Zé Roberto, Norbert Ziegler and Boris Zivkovic.
The first kick-off on this black and red weekend is reserved for the promotion heroes of 1979. Nearly all the members of the team including World Cup winner Dieter Herzog, Fred Bockholt, Jürgen Gelsdorf and Thomas Hörster will be at the stadium when celebrations start in the VIP area at the BayArena at 19.04 CET. A varied programme has been arranged under the guidance of Rüdiger Vollborn and Dirk Dreher where historic video and photo material plus interviews will bring the promotion season and the first years in the Bundesliga back to life. Tickets for Promotion Day cost five euros and are available on the door on the night.
Immediately before kick-off in the last home game of the season, legends including Bernd Schneider, Ulf Kirsten, Zé Roberto, Dimitar Berbatov and Bum-kun Cha plus coaching legends Christoph Daum and Jürgen Gelsdorf will be honoured on the pitch from 15.18 CET. Promotions and measures like the special shirt, an historic matchday magazine plus a range of entertainment will make it clear on 11 May: It’s not an ordinary matchday on Bismarckstraße.
On Sunday 12 May, Werkself fans can meet their heroes from yesterday, today and tomorrow – at the Day of Tradition in and around the BayArena. The stadium opens at 09.30 CET. The first highlight is a match involving the 'Bundesliga All-Stars’ at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The Werkself club legends will face each other at 10.00 CET. From 11.30 CET supporters will have the chance to look round the west area of the BayArena. The tour will take in the press conference room, the VIP areas, the Mixed Zone and, as a special extra, the chance to get on the team bus. The Bundesliga All-Stars will be there along with members of the current squad from around 13.00 CET with the opportunity at various points for fans to talk to the players, get autographs or have their photo taken. Entrance to the Day of Tradition costs one euro and ticket offices will be open on the north-west and south-west areas of the stadium.
For the home game against Schalke 04, the team led by captain Lars Bender will play in a special red kit. The limited edition shirt has been designed in co-operation with our partners JAKO. The design is based on the kit from the 1978/79 season when Bayer 04 were promoted to the Bundesliga. To make sure the shirt retains its historic look, both the main sponsor Barmenia Versicherungen and sleeve partner Kieser Training have agreed not to have the usual branding. 4,000 numbered special shirts were produced and were sold out within a few days.
Visitors planning to come by car to the club anniversary celebration '40 years Bundesliga under the Bayer Cross' or the Bundesliga home game against Schalke 04 may have to allow for traffic delays: Due to construction work, the A1 will be completely closed from Friday night (10 May, 22.00 CET) to Monday morning (30 May, 05.00 CET) in both directions between the motorway junctions Köln Nord and Leverkusen West. Bayer 04 advises allowing extra travel time and, as with all home games, recommends using public transport or the free car parking at Kurtekotten with shuttle buses to the BayArena provided – entrance tickets (with the exception of print@home tickets) are valid for travel on public transport in the regional travel areas of Rhein-Sieg and Rhein-Ruhr.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen finally achieved their target on 13 May 1979. A 3-3 draw with Bayer 05 Uerdingen at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium saw the team coached by Willibert Kremer seal promotion to Germany's top flight. The Bundesliga adventure started with an away game at FC Bayern Munich on 11 August 1979. Bayer 04 have been in the top division since that day – apart from the Werkself, only Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund can share that claim.
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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 working 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 personal 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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Three days after the spectacular comeback in the DFB Pokal tie against FC Nürnberg (5–2), the Werkself face their next challenge in the Bundesliga. On Saturday, 31 October (kick-off: 15:30 CET), Bayer 04 host VfB Stuttgart, currently 15th in the table, at the BayArena. Ahead of the match, Carles Martínez spoke, amongst other things, about important factors in preparing for this next game given a tight fixture list.
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