He started at Bayer 04 in 1976 as the youth managing director and shortly after that became the manager and director of the whole club of SV Bayer 04 that covered the sports of football, boxing, fist ball, handball and athletics. And in 1979, the year of promotion to the Bundesliga, he took over the post of head and managing director of the football department at the request of the then president Dr. Jürgen Schwericke. On this Saturday, Heintz Heitmann celebrates his 80th birthday.
Heintz Heitmann was the general manager of Bayer 04 the first five years in the Bundesliga. He was pretty much responsible for everything at the club: finance and budgeting, contract and transfer negotiations, licensing procedures, stadium administration, perimeter advertising, training camps and much more. The budget for the season in the first two years in the Bundesliga was 6.5 million Deutschmarks. "That covered all costs including the salaries of the players, coaches and staff, travel costs as well as looking after visitors and the press."
Our team spirit held together over the decades and they all remained Bayer lads," said Heitmann. He was in charge of the Veterans until 2006 – before handing over to Michael Kentschke. Bayer 04 send birthday greetings and wish the former general manager all the best and, above all, good health.
Today's top match at Leipzig will be refereed by FIFA official Harm Osmers from Hannover. His assistants are Robert Kempter from Stockach and Thomas Gorniak from Bremen. The fourth official is Lasse Kozlowski from Berlin. Günter Perl from Pullach is the VAR official. To date, Osmers has refereed 11 Werkself games, all in the Bundesliga – producing five wins, four draws, two defeats, 23 yellow cards and two red cards for Bayer 04. This season he was in charge of the home games against RB Leipzig (1-1) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (4-3).
He is an honorary captain and possibly the most technically gifted player ever to run out for the Werkself: Bernd 'Schnix' Schneider. The midfielder from Jena worked his magic on the right side of the Leverkusen midfield from 1999 to 2009 in 366 appearances. Now he has been asked by the Bild Zeitung about how the top game on matchday 19 will turn out. The answer from the now 47-year-old: "2-2 – both teams are strong in attack so there will be lots of goals. Because the last three meetings have ended in draws, the points will also be shared this time."
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 4-0 win at SGS Essen on the 24th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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Bayer 04 put in a brilliant performance to beat RB Leipzig 4-1 on Bundesliga matchday 32 and are now fourth in a Champions League spot. The Black and Reds took control of the game right from the start and, with 75 per cent possession at one stage, took a 2-0 lead into the break through Patrik Schick (25’) and Nathan Tella (45+1’). The visitors initially tried to do more after the break, but the Werkself remained determined and Schick scored his second goal to increase the lead to 3-0 (76'). The Red Bulls pulled a goal back through Christoph Baumgartner (80'), but the disciplined Leverkusen side were not rattled - and certainly not Schick: The Czechia international crowned a brilliant display with his third goal shortly before the final whistle to make the final score 4-1.
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In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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