“In Lisanne Gräwe we have been able to bring a top talent to our team. She has everything to settle in quickly to the Bundesliga, is a good ball-winner, and also has the necessary quality in midfield. We are very much looking forward to working with each other,” said Bayer 04 head coach Achim Feifel about the 18-year-old.
Gräwe has been at VfL Wolfsburg since 2019, primarily in Bundesliga 2 North, and she moved up to the senior team, making her Bundesliga debut at the age of 17. “I’m starting a new chapter here at Bayer 04. Of course, I have followed the club and their development in the Bundesliga and I’m looking forward to the new challenge,” said the midfielder.
The Bayer 04 Women have gained an ambitious defender in Julia Pollak. The 19-year-old clocked up her first experience on the pitch with the Bayern Munich second team in Bundesliga 2 South before moving up to the first team last term. She made six appearances in the league, two in the DFB Cup and four in the Champions League. Pollak’s first season in the top flight was crowned by winning the league title. The defender “wants to gain more match practice” and sees the move to Leverkusen as “the right next step in my career.”
Achim Feifel on the new signing: “Julia was able to prove herself in Munich in an absolute top team. She is very versatile and assertive and her technical ability from the full-back position allows her to mount attacking moves. It’s great that she’ll be wearing the Bayer 04 shirt for our team in the new season.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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