All clubs in the Bundesliga and the second division are entitled to take part. 26 clubs will compete in the new season of the VBL – four more than last year. That is a record for the eFootball competition in the 2020/21 season organised by the German Football League (DFL) in cooperation with EA SPORTS.
In 2019/20, Kai ‘DETO’ Wollin and Fabian ‘B04_DUBZJE’ De Cae secured an impressive third-place finish for Bayer 04 in the VBLCC. That qualified the #B04 eSports team for the Grand Final. 'B04_DUBZJE' ended up fifth on Xbox One – that meant he just missed out on qualifying for the Round of 16. 'DETO' rounded off an impressive season as the best FIFA player of the year on PlayStation 4 and he finished with the runners-up title across formats.
Next season starts in November. The fixtures for the new campaign will be published by the DFL at the end of September. All matches will be played on FIFA 21 on the levelled-off mode, which means all players and teams will have the same aggregated strength. As in previous years, the eSports players can qualify via the final table for the VBL play-offs or the Grand Final where an individual player is crowned VBL Champion.
Alongside the Bayer 04 duo, the eSports teams of the following clubs will compete in the VBL Club Championship 2020/21: FC Augsburg, Hertha Berlin, VfL Bochum, Eintracht Braunschweig, Werder Bremen, SV Darmstadt 98, Eintracht Frankfurt, SpVgg Greuther Fürth, Hamburg SV, Hannover 96, FC Heidenheim, TSG Hoffenheim, Holstein Kiel, FC Köln, RB Leipzig, Mainz 05, Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Nürnberg, SC Paderborn, FC St Pauli, SSV Jahn Regensburg, SV Sandhausen, Schalke 04, VfL Wolfsburg, Würzburger Kickers.
Issa Traoré is moving from Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Slovakian top-flight side AS Trencin. The club has loaned the centre-back out for one year to this year’s ninth-placed team in the Slovakian league.
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Assistant coach Remzi Kahraman is leaving the Bayer 04 Women’s team with immediate effect to take up a new challenge abroad. The club has agreed to the 31-year-old’s request to leave, although his contract was originally due to run until 2027. A decision on his successor will be announced shortly.
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At the U19 European Championship in Wales, the Germany U19 national team lost their third and final group match 4-0 to Spain. Several regulars, including Bayer 04 players Montrell Culbreath and Francis Onyeka (on loan to SV Elversberg), who had combined for four goals and assists in the two previous victories, did not feature,. Germany had already secured their place in the semi-finals with a game to spare.
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Two weeks into the preseason, the Bayer 04 Women have secured their first victory. Coach Roberto Pätzold’s team won their first friendly 2–0 against Bundesliga newcomers Mainz 05. In front of 160 spectators at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre, the two summer signings, Maja Sternad (80’) and Justine Brandau (90’), scored for the Black and Reds.
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