Other nominees from the Bundesliga, alongside Edmond Tapsoba from Burkina Faso, are Ramy Bensebaini (Algeria/Borussia Dortmund) and Serhou Guirassy (Guinea/VfB Stuttgart).
Tapsoba recently played his 150th game for Bayer 04 in the 2-1 home win against SC Freiburg. The central defender will be involved in the Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast from 13 January 2024. If selected, Bayer 04 players involved in the competition will also include Amine Adli (Morocco), Victor Boniface (Nigeria) plus Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast) in addition to Tapsoba (Burkina Faso). All the national teams of those Leverkusen players have qualified for the AFCON finals.
There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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Bayer 04 have won each of their last five competitive encounters with 1. FC Köln, and it's around seven years since their last defeat in the cathedral city. That said, the hosts are in strong form at home and will make it anything but easy for the Werkself at the RheinEnergieSTADION on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 15:30 CET). The Matchday News.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 2-0 win against Hamburger SV on Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga.
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1. FC Köln host Bayer 04 on Sunday 8 November (kick-off 15:30 CET) in the 75th Bundesliga derby between the Rhineland neighbours. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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