They were the first Bayer 04 team to knock on the door of the Bundesliga. Under coach Theo Kirchberg, affectionately known as the Fox due to his tactical trickery, the team had an outstanding season in 1967/68 ending up champions of the Regional League West. That title took the club into the promotion play-offs for the Bundesliga founded five years previously. Bayer 04 battled with Tennis Borussia Berlin, TuS Neuendorf, Arminia Hannover and Kickers Offenbach for a place in Germany's top flight – but ended up losing narrowly to Offenbach: In the game in front of 28,000 spectators at the Bieberer Berg, Leverkusen took the lead through Peter Rübenach but ended up losing 2-1 in added time to finish second in the group behind the Kickers. Ten men from the title winning team will be at the stadium led by Helmut and Karl-Heinz Brücken, Günter Haarmann, Fredi Hennecken, Friedhelm Renno, Helmut Röhrig and Peter Rübenach.
The names of the 93 Cup winning side and the 88 UEFA Cup winners are probably more familiar to most Werkself fans. With the exception of Bum-kun Cha, nearly all of the heroes from the European season 30 years ago will be at the BayArena to again take in the deserved applause of the supporters: Coach Erich Ribbeck, Herbert Waas, 'Boxer' Klaus Täuber, Falko Götz, Wolfgang Rolff, Christian Schreier and, and, and... Without doubt, the longest journey was undertaken by Tita who arrived from Brazil on Thursday. The 1993 team will be led out by coach Dragoslav Stepanovic with another star-studded cast: Ulf Kirsten, Andy Thom, Ioan Lupescu, Franco Foda, Christian Wörns, Martin Kree, Markus Happe and Heiko Scholz.
All 50 will come together in the Armenia Lounge at the BayArena on Saturday afternoon where they will be welcomed by Fernando Carro, chairman of the board at Bayer 04. As part of the fan choreography, the members of all three teams will be honoured on the pitch shortly before the kick-off of the Bundesliga match and there will be a short interview with a player from each team at half-time on the pitch led by the stadium announcers Petra 'Pitti' Dahl and Tobias Ufer.
The Schwadbud talk show after the game against Dortmund will feature special guests: Franco Foda, today Austria coach, as captain of the DFB Cup winners and Wolfgang Rolff as skipper of the UEFA Cup heroes will give their assessments of the clash with BVB and, no doubt, recount many an anecdote from their time at Bayer 04.
The second friendly and the first goal for the Bayer 04 Women: The Werkself just missed out on their first win in the preseason away to top-flight Dutch side PEC Zwolle. The team led by coach Roberto Pätzold drew 1-1 on Friday afternoon in Wezep. As with the friendly against TSG Hoffenheim (0-2) a number of first-team players were absent. The coach once again shared out time on the pitch for the 20-player squad. The goal of the match was scored by summer signing Vanessa Fudalla (67').
Show moreContinuity under the Cross: After the successful season in 2024/25 with reaching the final of the VBL Club Championship, the two Leverkusen e-sports players Marc and Sean Landwehr have extended their contracts at Bayer 04 by an additional two years. Marc is thereby in his sixth year and Sean in his third year with the Werkself. Together with e-talent Marcus Hüttemann, who has also extended his stay at Bayer 04 Bayer year, completes the current squad for the 2025/26 season.
Show moreBayer 04 Leverkusen have signed centre forward Christian Kofane. The 18-year-old Cameroonian joins Leverkusen from Spanish second tier club Albacete on a contract to 30 June 2029.
Show moreBayer 04 Leverkusen will wear the new away kit for the 2025/26 season at the start of the training camp in Brazil. In conscious contrast to the international aspect of this year's training camp in Rio de Janeiro, kit supplier New Balance has designed a jersey for the Werkself players and all other Bayer 04 teams with distinct links to home.
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