Bayer 04 have brought through the next Germany international in Florian Wirtz. The 5 feet 9 midfielder recently made his debut for Germany under new coach Hansi Flick who was appointed in August.
His predecessor Joachim Löw was the Germany coach for 15 years – and he used to regularly include Black and Reds in his line-ups. During the Löw era, a total of 17 Werkself players wore the Germany shirt – including members of the current Bayer 04 squad such as Jonathan Tah, Karim Bellarabi and Nadiem Amiri as well as former players like honorary captain Lars Bender, Toni Kroos and Gonzalo Castro.
Wirtz is the 34th Leverkusen player to make his debut for Germany. The history of Bayer 04 and the German national side goes back to the 1980s.
The first Bayer 04 player to appear for the senior Germany team was Herbert Waas. The centre-forward wore the Leverkusen shirt for eight years – between 1982 and 1990. The first full international came in June 1983 under the then Germany coach Jupp Derwall.
Franz Beckenbauer, Berti Vogts, Erich Ribbeck and Rudi Völler also selected Werkself players regularly over the course of the following years. Here is the list of Germany debutants who were at Bayer 04 when they played their first full international:
2021: Florian Wirtz
2019: Nadiem Amiri
2018: Kai Havertz, Bernd Leno, Jonathan Tah, Julian Brandt
2016: Benjamin Henrichs
2014: Karim Bellarabi, Sidney Sam
2013: Philipp Wollscheid
2011: Lars Bender
2010: Toni Kroos, Stefan Reinartz
2008: René Adler
2007: Stefan Kießling, Gonzalo Castro, Simon Rolfes
2006: Manuel Friedrich
2003: Hanno Balitsch
2002: Thomas Brdaric
1999: Bernd Schneider
1998: Carsten Ramelow
1998: Paulo Rink, Stefan Beinlich
1997: Jens Nowotny
1992: Ulf Kirsten, Heiko Scholz, Christian Wörns
1990: Andreas Thom
1989: Alois Reinhardt
1988: Knut Reinhardt
1986: Thomas Hörster
1984: Christian Schreier
1983: Herbert Waas
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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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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