Hradecky blinded for 30 seconds

“The win in Munich was the icing on the cake! We played with loads of passion and desire. We’ve always had mentality and commitment and now we’ve got that winning feeling again on top of that. I hope that continues to Christmas and we can stay at the top end of the table,” said Lukas Hradecky looking back at the weekend. “You don’t usually plan to get points against Bayern. A win against Schalke could see us trump the victory at the weekend – I love that word,” said the Finn.

Preparations for the top match against FC Schalke 04 (Saturday, 18.30 CET, live on Werks11 Radio and live text commentary at bayer04.de) are in full swing. In the final open session ahead of the game, all the Bayer 04 players took part in training with the exception of Mitchell Weiser and Joel Pohjanpalo. After the warm-up, Kevin Volland trained on his own at the BayArena; the Bender twins, Wendell, Charles Aránguiz and Jonathan Tah, suspended for two games, trained on pitch 2. The rest of the squad played five-a-side in fast-paced games with plenty of pressing.

‘I couldn’t see for about 30 seconds’

By Saturday it was clear to everybody: Lukas Hradecky wears contact lenses. The 30-year-old lost a contact lens in the first half of the away win in Munich as he revealed after the game. “It’s the first time it’s ever happened to me in my career,” he didn’t panic and stayed cool in spite of the opposition attacks: “The lens got caught up and I couldn’t see anything for 30 seconds – even long balls. Then I ran to the doc and he was able to get the lens back in place. But it was inside out – I was able to see again but it was uncomfortable. I played the rest of the first half like that.” Hradecky can laugh about it now, “but my pulse was racing in that situation.”

Havertz sixth-place for Kopa Trophy

Kai Havertz is the sixth-best young player in the world! That was revealed at the award of the Kopa Trophy presented at yesterday’s FIFA Player of the Year awards. At the gala event in Paris, the Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt (Juventus) won the young player award and there was the Ballon d’Or for the best male player and female player plus the award for the best goalkeeper. The much sought-after Ballon d’Or was again won by Lionel Messi with the former Werkself player Heung-min Son – currently at Tottenham Hotspur – also nominated. The South Korean was in 22^nd place.

Two birthday boys

Happy Birthday, Heiko Herrlich! The former Bayer 04 player and coach celebrates his 48^th birthday. Dirk Heinen was also born on 3 December, albeit a year earlier. The former Werkself keeper is 49. Bayer 04 wishes both of them a happy birthday! 

Callsen-Bracker on Augsburg supervisory board

Bundesliga rivals FC Augsburg have appointed former Bayer 04 player Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker to their supervisory board. The 35-year-old, who made 58 apperances for the Bayer 04 first team and 68 for the reserves between 2002 and 2008, ended his playing career at FC Augsburg in the summer of 2019. Since than, Callsen-Bracker worked at the DFB Academy in the newly created area of ‘neuro athletics’ in the innovation and development section. The 35-year-old has a non-executive position on the control committee at FCA.