
Kießling, who ended his playing career with Bayer 04 in the summer, will take up the post created for him by Rudi Völler providing support to the sporting management and other departments at the club.
This will be the start of a second career at the Werkself for the 34-year-old who made 444 appearances and scored 162 goals for the Black and Reds between 2006 and 2018. "I'm really looking forward to the new job and working in close cooperation with Rudi Völler," said Kießling. "It's extremely exciting to get to know another side of football now."
For Völler, the culmination of the long-held ambition of the Leverkusen hero to embark on a career in club management is, "a good day for us. Hardly anybody else embodies the absolute identification with Bayer 04 more than Stefan Kießling," declared the 1990 World Cup winner. "He'll really get stuck into the job just like he did as player."


The Leverkusen eSports team played the remaining three of the six matches in the online preliminary round of the fourth showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. RB Leipzig and SC Freiburg were among the teams with the highest goal threat, including two World Cup participants in their ranks. Although the #B04eSports players were defeated in the matches overall, nine points from the first three games last week were enough for Leverkusen to advance to the offline round in Berlin on 2 February.
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A decisive showdown awaits: The Werkself are aiming to progress to the play-off round of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League with a home win against Villarreal CF on the eighth and final matchday of the league phase. Ahead of the match on Wednesday, 28 January (kick-off: 21:00 CET), coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the importance of the game, the possible return of Edmond Tapsoba and a statement from new signing Jonas Omlin in an exclusive interview with Werkself TV. Lucas Vázquez, for his part, spoke about his role on and off the pitch as well as tomorrow’s opponents, who he often faced in Spain with Real Madrid.
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For Villarreal CF, the match at Bayer 04 on Wednesday, 28 January (kick-off: 21:00 CET), will be their last appearance on the European stage this season. The Spanish side, currently fourth in La Liga, are still without a win in the UEFA Champions League and, with just one point from their seven games so far, have no chance of making the play-offs. The 2021 Europa League winners can therefore play without any pressure at the BayArena and will be looking to bow out of the competition with a good performance. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen will to have manage without forward Eliesse Ben Seghir. The Morocco international suffered a ligament injury in his left ankle before the AFCON final defeat against Senegal (0-1 a.e.t.).
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