
"Julian gives us a lot of stability and his experience is an important factor in our game," declared Rudi Völler, the Bayer 04 managing director sport. Sporting director Simon Rolfes sees Baumgartlinger as "an extremely hard-running and ball-winning player. You can rely on Julian and, with his top professional attitude, he plays a significant role both on and off the pitch."
Baumgartlinger was captain of Mainz 05 in 2016 before he joined the Werkself. "Leverkusen have made it possible for me to play at the highest level in the Champions League and the Europa League – and we are one of the best clubs in Germany. It's great fun being an important part of the team at this level and remains a great challenge," said Baumgartlinger.

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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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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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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