Karim Bellarabi and Julian Brandt were third and fourth amongst the wingers with Kevin Volland in eighth spot. In the view of the Kicker editors Bellarabi was only outdone by Henrikh Mkhitaryan (BVB) and Franck Ribéry (Bayern). Julian Brandt is top in the next section with the following assessment: “When his name came up for inclusion there was a thorough discussion of his making the International class. With his goals and assists in the last ten games Julian Brandt showed his outstanding quality. Great on the ball, a good shot on the turn and brilliant technique – Brandt’s potential is indisputable.”
The assessment of Kevin Volland: “Three goals, seven assists and an average mark of 3.09. His run-in played a great part in keeping TSG Hoffenheim up after a catastrophic first half of the season.”
Amongst the strikers, Chicharito was listed in the International class for the second time in succession as was Borussia Dortmund forward Aubameyang. Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski was the only attacking player to make it to the ‘World class’ category. The Kicker assessment of ‘Chicha’: “On the verge of ‘World class’ in the first half of the season but he was unable to maintain his impressive number of goals and assists.” And on Stefan Kießling: “Once a striker, today a provider. The worker in Leverkusen rarely gets a chance to finish. Other players convert his handiwork into goals.”
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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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