
The maxim for the event: "Get off your office chairs and put on your trainers. That was the slogan for the B2Run, which was again held in Cologne on Thursday. There was another good turnout from Bayer 04 staff among the 23,000 runners for the third time at this big event. "It was really great fun again," said Jenny Weber, who has now taken over the organisation of the Bayer 04 running group.
The response was similar to last year with some 40 sports-mad Bayer 04 members of staff from all departments taking part in the run, which is one of the biggest in Germany. For the participants in Black and Red, who again prepared for the run under their coach Tatjana Rüber, the start in Cologne is always a special highlight in their sporting calendars. "We're already looking forward to next year's run, said Jenny Weber on behalf of the Bayer 04 group.
The course through the city forest was 5.4 kilometres long and the finishing line was at the RheinEnergie Stadium as usual. A glass of Kölsch beer was raised for the people completing the run and several members of the Leverkusen running group took advantage of the invite to the after-run party in the VIP area at the Cologne Arena. The star guest at the event was B2Run ambassador Magdalena Neuner, double Olympic Gold medal winner and twelve-time biathlon world champion.

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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