The first game of the season away to Borussia Dortmund is on Saturday 6 August. The kick-off at the Signal Iduna Park is at 18.30 CEST. The opening home fixture is on Saturday 13 August. FC Augsburg are the first visitors to the BayArena this term.
There is another home fixture a week later: The Werkself entertain TSG Hoffenheim on Saturday 20 August (kick-off: 15.30 CEST. The fourth and final match in August is away to Mainz 05. That game is also on a Saturday afternoon (27 August) at 15.30 CEST.
That is followed in September with the home game against SC Freiburg, an away trip to Hertha Berlin and a home match against Werder Bremen (see list below).
Bundesliga fixtures matchdays 1 to 7:
Borussia Dortmund vs Bayer 04 (Saturday 6 August, 18.30 CEST)
Bayer 04 vs FC Augsburg (Saturday 13 August, 15.30 CEST)
Bayer 04 vs TSG Hoffenheim (Saturday 20 August, 15.30 CEST)
Mainz 05 vs Bayer 04 (Saturday 27 August, 15.30 CEST)
Bayer 04 vs SC Freiburg (Saturday 3 September, 15.30 CEST)
Hertha Berlin vs Bayer 04 (Saturday 10 September, 15.30 CEST)
Bayer 04 vs Werder Bremen (Saturday 17 September, 15.30 CEST)
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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