The Black and Red Champions League special edition is here. Werkself Magazin number 38 appears in time for the opening game for Bayer 04 in the Champions League. This has already been sent out to members of the Werkself by post and now the magazine is available online. It contains a big interview with head coach Gerardo Seoane, contains information on the Champions League campaign in 2022/23 and there is also everything on the history of Bayer 04 in Europe's premier club competition.
Click here for the free online edition
UEFA have appointed Irfan Peljto as the match official the meeting with Club Brugge. The Champions League match is the first game involving the Werkself under the 38-year-old referee from Bosnia-Herzegovina who has been a FIFA official since 2015. At the Jan Breydel Stadium, Peljto will be assisted by his fellow countrymen Senad Ibrisimbegović and Davor Beljo, with the Italian Marco Guida as the VAR official. Have a good game.
Club Brugge and Bayer 04 meet in a European competition for the second time. The last game in the Champions League group stage in 2006/07 produced a 1-1 draw with Bernd Schneider giving the Black and Reds the lead in the first half. For the Belgian side, this will be the tenth time in Europe's premier club competition. However, Club Brugge have not progressed through the group stage in all of their nine previous attempts, more than any other club.
Comparing the start to the season by the two clubs, the Belgians appear to have upper hand: 16 points in the first seven games in the Jupiter Pro League sees last year's champions of Belgium third in the table at the moment. Despite many new signings, Club Brugge have been prolific in front of goal (17 goals). It remains to be seen how the Belgians will perform against the Werkself tonight. Further information on our opponents from West Flanders can be found in the analysis of our next opponents.
Anybody unable to make the trip to Belgium can follow the audio broadcast on the Werkself Radio from 30 minutes before kick-off. Cedric Pick and Niko Hartmann will keep fans up-to-date with the action in the game against the Belgian side. You can also keep in touch via live text updates. Both the radio and update service can be found at bayer04.de as well as on the Bayer 04 app.
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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To all Bayer 04 fans: The Fanwelt will be closed all day next Monday 30 June. This is due to preparations for the change of kit supplier from Castore to New Balance on Tuesday 1 July.
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The Norway U23 international Julie Jorde has completed the move from Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Brøndby IF. The twelve-time champions of Denmark have signed the midfielder on permanent terms after her loan move from the Bundesliga to Denmark in the winter.
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It is almost two years since Bayer 04 new signing Abdoulaye Faye first stepped foot into the BayArena as a player for the Swedish club BK Häcken in the opening match in the 2023/24 Europa League campaign. A day before his nineteenth birthday, the central defender did not play in the 4-0 win for the Werkself but it was "an incredible night" for him on 21 September 2023 as he explained in his first interview on bayer04.de. "I watched the players and saw the fans. I liked it." It was also the first European night early on in his career. He only joined the then champions of Sweden in the cold north of Europe from his home in Senegal a few weeks before that special moment. Bayer04.de profiles our new defender.
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Welcome, Abdoulaye Faye. The 20-year-old Senegalese central defender joins Leverkusen from top-flight Swedish club BK Häcken. In his first interview he talks about his move to Bayer 04 and his targets with the Werkself.
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