
"Kai Havertz voted into second place is in my opinion deserved and no surprise. He has a lot of potential, enjoyment playing the game and ambition," praised Germany coach Jogi Löw. "We want to see him succeed in the national team. It gives me great pleasure to work with the two players (Reus and Havertz, ed.) in continuing our rebuilding and development of the team."
Michael Ballack was the only Werkself player to date to win the title of Footballer of the Year in 2002. Back then, Ballack was in the Bayer 04 team that reached the Champions League final and he also led Germany to the World Cup final.
The vote for the Footballer of the Year has been organised by the sports magazine Kicker since 1960 amongst members of the German Sports Journalists Association (VDS). 550 valid votes were cast in the 2019 ballot.

The Bayer 04 Women welcome FC Carl Zeiss Jena to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on Sunday night in a white retro look - and in a unique Bayer 04 ‘50 Years of Fan Clubs’ special edition jersey. In sporting terms, head coach Roberto Pätzold's team will face the Bundesliga's bottom team at 18:30 CET looking to keep their chances of third place in the table alive with six games left to play.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without the two strikers in the immediate future. Caroline Kehrer suffered a torn ligament in her right knee and Amy Wrigge tore her cruciate ligament.
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The #B04eSports players now have the next chance to win a trophy. After their elimination in the quarter-finals of the VBL Club Championship Final 2025/26, the German club championship, Marc and Sean Landwehr will compete with seven other teams in the finals of the DFB-ePokal 2026 with prize money totalling €65,000. The "highly motivated" Leverkusen team will face the defending champions FOKUS with well-known influencer Elias ‘EliasN97’ Nerlich in the quarter-finals in Frankfurt on Friday, 20 March (from 18:15 CET). The semi-finals and final will be played on Saturday, 21 March.
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Bayer 04 host Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the 2025/26 DFB Pokal. The tie will be played on Wednesday, 22 April 2026, at the BayArena with the kick-off at 20:45 CEST. Information on ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 lost 2-0 at Arsenal FC in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg. Eberechi Eze (36') and Declan Rice (63') scored the goals for the Gunners. Despite a big effort – especially in the second half – the Werkself are out of the competition following the 1-1 draw in the first leg.
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