
The South American championship, with a total of twelve teams taking part (ten South American plus Japan and Qatar), sees the Werkself midfielder playing for the holders – Aránguiz was in the Chile teams that won in 2015 and in the special competition held in 2016 to celebrate the centenary of the South American Football Association (CONMEBOL). Ahead of the tournament, La Roja first have a warm-up game in a friendly against Haiti (6 June) before they start the group stage against Japan on 18 June followed by matches against Ecuador (22 June) and Uruguay (25 June).
Leon Bailey is about to make his international debut for Jamaica. Jamaica have called up the 21-year-old for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's football championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region. The Reggae Boyz have a friendly against the USA (6 June) ahead of group matches against Honduras (18 June), El Salvador (22 June) and Curacao (26 June).
Julian Baumgartlinger and Aleksandar Dragovic have also been called up for international duty with the Austria squad. The Austrians have two European championship qualifiers against Slovenia (7 June) and North Macedonia (10 June) – as does Lukas Hradecky with Finland playing Bosnia-Herzegovina (8 June) and Liechtenstein (11 June). Paulinho is part of the Brazil U23 squad at the Maurice Revello tournament in Provence to be held from 1 to 15 June 2019 that involves top youth teams from across the world. Our number seven is set to play in the group stage against Guatemala (2 June), France (5 June) and Qatar (8 June). Isaac Kiese Thelin can now go on holiday. The forward was in the preliminary Sweden squad but has not made the cut. However, he will need to pack his football boots as the 26-year-old is on standby for the European Championship qualifiers against Malta (7 June) and Spain (10 June).
Jonathan Tah, Kai Havertz and Julian Brandt were called up to the Germany squad last week for the European Championship qualifiers in Belarus (8 June) and against Estonia in Mainz (11 June). The Germany senior squad come together in the Dutch city of Venlo on 2 June for a short training camp. After that, Jonathan Tah will take part in the U21 European Championships (16 to 30 June in Italy and San Marino). The Croatia Football Association have already announced that Tin Jedvaj will be in the World Cup runners-up squad for the European Championship qualifier against Wales (8 June) and a friendly against Tunisia (11 June).


Decision made: Germany will submit a bid to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to host the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Munich. The representatives of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) voted for Munich over Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr at their extraordinary meeting in Baden-Baden on Saturday 26 September. Berlin had already withdrawn from the vote a few days earlier.
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Former Werkself star Michael Ballack, who won the German Footballer of the Year award in 2002 while playing in Leverkusen, celebrates his 50th birthday on Saturday. Bayer 04 sends him its best wishes!
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A challenging start to what will hopefully be a long journey: The Bayer 04 women’s team kick off their new DFB Pokal campaign on Sunday (14:00 CEST) against second-division leaders FC Viktoria Berlin. Coach Roberto Pätzold expects stiff resistance in the capital – and is counting on his team’s strong away form in the Bundesliga so far this term.
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Attention Werkself fans: In addition to tickets for the floodlit home match against Werder Bremen, tickets are now also available for the Bayer 04 women’s team’s two subsequent fixtures against Eintracht Frankfurt and Hamburger SV at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Both matches in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga will take place at family-friendly kick-off times on Saturday afternoons. Here is the latest information on matchday ticket sales.
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