In addition to the Leverkusen Germany international, five other Bundesliga players are in the running: Jamal Musiala, Ryan Gravenberch (both Bayern Munich) Karim Adeyemi and Jude Bellingham (both Borussia Dortmund) plus Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig). The other candidates are Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid) and Gavi (Barcelona).
The trophy will be presented at the 66th award of the Ballon d‘Or, which is to be held at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 17 October. The winner of the Kopa Trophy will be selected by the former Ballon d'Or winners like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
The award for the best U21 player of the year has been presented since 2018 with Kylian Mbappe the first winner. FC Bayern new signing Matthijs De Ligt was the winner in 2019. The trophy was not awarded two years ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The trophy was last won by the Spaniard Pedri (Barcelona).
Werkself TV shows the highlights of the 4-0 victory in the friendly match against KRC Genk...
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In their third friendly of this pre-season, Bayer 04 played on home soil for the first time – and won there too! The Werkself claimed a comfortable 4-0 victory against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. Jeanuel Belocian (9’) and Nathan Tella (42’) gave a dominant Leverkusen a 2-0 lead at the break, which Afonso Moreira (51’) and Christian Kofane (53’) doubled after the break. Among the many second-half substitutions was Patrik Schick, who made his first friendly appearance of the summer.
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The Werkself continue their 2026/27 pre-season preparations with their third friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion on Wednesday 29 July (kick-off 15:00 CEST). Werkself-TV is broadcasting the match live and in full in a stream from 14:50 CEST...
After the children from the Bayer 04 Football Academy grilled Janis Blaswich and Simeon Rapsch last week, another group of 20 young Werkself fans gathered at the BayArena press conference room on Tuesday afternoon, 28 July . This time, the kids directed their questions at Tim Oermann and Jonah Berghoff. Defender Oermann raved about his school days, whilst talented midfielder Berghoff revealed to the young footballers, amongst other things, who his favourite player is – and he is also at Bayer 04. To round things off, the pair naturally obliged with all requests for autographs and selfies.
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Bayer 04 are back on the pitch. Following the first training sessions, the Werkself play the first pre-season friendly on Saturday, July 18. The match against Oberliga club Sportfreunde Baumberg kicks off at 15:30 CEST in Monheim am Rhein. Fans unable to attend the match can watch head coach Carles Martínez’s first game in charge for free via a livestream at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app, as well as on Werkself.tv (exclusively for members). Just log on and watch the games live. All the other Werkself preseason friendlies leading up to the 2026/27 season will also be streamed live for free.
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