News in brief: Vote now for Hlozek as 'Bundesliga Rookie of the Month'

A great honour for Adam Hlozek: The 20-year-old has been nominated for the Bundesliga vote for Rookie of the Month alongside Éric Junior Dina Ebimbe (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Jakub Kaminski (VfL Wolfsburg).

Black and Red fans have until Thursday 24 November at 23.59 CET to vote for the Werkself number 23 as #BLRookie of the Month. You can vote HERE. The final result is determined as follows: 40% of the votes come from fans, and 30% each from the 18 Bundesliga team captains as well as a group of pundits.

Adam Hlozek joined the Werkself from top Czech club Sparta Prague in the summer of 2022 and he has been directly involved in five goals in 20 games for Bayer 04 this season. Hlozek scored his first Bundesliga goal in the month of November.

World cup Update: Hincapie wins, Azmoun on as a sub

Piero Hincapie and Ecuador have made a winning start to the World Cup: The Werkself player was in the line-up for the 2-0 win in the opening match against hosts Qatar. Ecuador star striker Enner Valencia netted a brace (16', 31') on Sunday evening after having a strike on three minutes ruled out for offside. Hincapie played the full 90 minutes and helped his team keep a clean sheet. Ecuador are next in action in Group A against the Netherlands with Bayer 04 player Jeremie Frimpong (25 November 17.00 CET). The last match in the group against Senegal is four days later with the kick-off at 16.00 CET.

Sardar Azmoun was the second Leverkusen player to start the World Cup today Monday afternoon. The striker with Iran was on the wrong end of a 6-2 scoreline against England. Azmoun, who has not played since the end of September due to a muscle problem, came off the bench on 77 minutes with the score at 5-1 and he hit the bar eight minutes into added time.

Jeremie Frimpong and the Netherlands play their opening match against Senegal today at 17.00 CET, Exequiel Palacios and Argentina are involved in their opening game against Saudi Arabia tomorrow morning at 11.00.

happy birthday, Peter Bosz

A former Werkself head coach celebrates his birthday today: Peter Bosz is 59 years old – many happy returns. The Dutch coach came to Leverkusen at the end of December 2018. Up to his departure in March 2021, he coached Bayer 04 in 108 games picking up an average of 1.79 points per match. Bosz was in the dugout at the French club Lyon up to a month ago.