Head coach Gerardo Seoane was able to welcome Odilon Kossounou back to the squad on Tuesday. The central defender headed home before the turn of the year to take part in the Africa Couple Nations with Ivory Coast. The tournament ended for the Ivorians last week with a 1-0 defeat against Egypt in the Round of 16. That means Kossounou is available for the match against BVB.
Paulinho has also returned to full training in the shadow of the BayArena. The Brazilian forward was sidelined after testing positive for Covid-19 and he is now being gradually brought back up to speed.
Julian Baumgartlinger (after knee injury) and Daley Sinkgraven (after muscle injury) were involved with some of the team training on Tuesday while Exequiel Palacios continues to be sidelined due to back problems. .
A few days before the start of the second half of the season in the FLYERALARM Women's Bundesliga, the coaches and captains of the twelve clubs have voted for their four best players in six different categories. In the most improved category, there was a player from the Bayer 04 squad in Verena Wieder. The 21-year-old was in third place in the rankings, with 18.2% of all the votes, which she shared with Maximiliane Rall (Bayern Munich). Wieder joined Leverkusen from SC Freiburg in the summer of 2020 and last season scored four league goals for the Black and Reds. Carry on, Verena.
With the exception of Wendell (250 games), no other Brazilian player has made more appearances for Bayer 04: Juan, signed from flamingo Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2002, played 176 times for the Black and Reds (16 goals). After five years he moved on to AS Roma before returning to Brazil in 2019 where he ended his playing career. Juan today celebrates his 43rd birthday – many happy returns.
Bayer 04 congratulates Sebastian Boenisch on his 35th birthday. The Polish left-back joined the Werkself in November 2012 and he went on to play 76 times (3 goals, 12 assists) for Bayer 04 in four years. After joining other clubs, mainly in Austria, Boenisch ended his playing career in the summer of 2020. Many happy returns and the best of health for the year ahead too.
Decision made: Germany will submit a bid to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to host the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Munich. The representatives of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) voted for Munich over Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr at their extraordinary meeting in Baden-Baden on Saturday 26 September. Berlin had already withdrawn from the vote a few days earlier.
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Former Werkself star Michael Ballack, who won the German Footballer of the Year award in 2002 while playing in Leverkusen, celebrates his 50th birthday on Saturday. Bayer 04 sends him its best wishes!
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A challenging start to what will hopefully be a long journey: The Bayer 04 women’s team kick off their new DFB Pokal campaign on Sunday (14:00 CEST) against second-division leaders FC Viktoria Berlin. Coach Roberto Pätzold expects stiff resistance in the capital – and is counting on his team’s strong away form in the Bundesliga so far this term.
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Attention Werkself fans: In addition to tickets for the floodlit home match against Werder Bremen, tickets are now also available for the Bayer 04 women’s team’s two subsequent fixtures against Eintracht Frankfurt and Hamburger SV at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Both matches in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga will take place at family-friendly kick-off times on Saturday afternoons. Here is the latest information on matchday ticket sales.
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