There have been positive Covid-19 cases at the Spanish top-flight club and the club management responded by cancelling the trip to Germany. Bayer 04 are now looking for a new opponent for the final pre-season friendly. The Werkself kick off the new season on 7 August with the DFB Cup tie against FC Lokomotive Leipzig.
Tickets for the friendly against FC Utrecht, with the kick-off at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium at 16.00 CEST on Wednesday 28 July, are exclusively available from the Bayer 04 service centre on 0214 5000 1904. Away fans are not permitted; spectators must be double vaccinated, have recovered from the virus or have a negative test. Children over the age of six need a certified, negative test result. The relevant documents are to be shown on entering the stadium.
Tickets cost five euros. All proceeds go to the 'Leverkusen hilft' campaign organised by the Leverkusen community foundation.
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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