For the last time at this year's summer training camp, head coach Gerardo Seoane led two training sessions on one day. In the morning, the Swiss mainly focused on crosses, moves and finishing. Back with the group again: Youngster Emrehan Gedikli who was rested the day before as a control of his workload.
The 70-minute session was followed by the obligatory group photo with all the players, coaches and staff. They were joined on the photo by two representatives of the Zell am See-Kaprun holiday region, a long-standing partner of Bayer 04: Renate Ecker, CEO of Zell am See-Kaprun Tourismus GmbH, and Hannes Herr from SalzburgerLand Tourismus GmbH.
The second session in the afternoon was primarily spent on the neighbouring pitch at the Alois Latini Stadium. Jonathan Tah and Co. pulled on bibs and played across the whole pitch. The management plus players and coaches welcomed Werner Wenning to the second training session of the day. The chair of the Bayer 04 shareholders committee was there as a guest.
The training camp ends on Friday, 23 July with a friendly. The Werkself round off the training camp with a game against SC Freiburg in Wattens. The kick-off is at 14.00 CEST and the match will be broadcast live on the Bayer 04 YouTube channel.
After the second session, some of the Werkself players collected their towels for the first visit to Lake Zell at this year's training camp. The outfield players cooled down just a few metres away from the training ground. The goalkeeping quartet were ahead of the rest – Lukas Hradecky, Andrey Lunev, Lennart Grill and Niklas Lomb had already jumped into the lake in the morning.
While the majority of the Werkself squad are working hard in Austria, two Bayer 04 players are away in Japan. Nadiem Amiri (Germany) and Paulinho (Brazil) kick off the Olympic Games football tournament on Thursday. The opening match in Group D in Yokohama at 13.30 CEST brings a face-to-face meeting between the two Leverkusen players.
Amiri is really looking forward to the clash with his teammate: "Such a cracker in the first match – every player is up for that!" Paulinho and Co. are based in the Olympic village just one floor below the Germany squad. "You can notice with the news that there is a certain tension," said Amiri with a smile.
Two former Werkself players celebrate their birthdays today (Wednesday). Ömer Toprak, captain of Werder Bremen, is 32 years old. The Turk played under the Bayer Cross from 2011 to 2017. During his time at Bayer 04, Toprak took part in four summer training sessions in Zell am See-Kaprun.
Andriy Voronin, at Leverkusen from 2004 to 2007, turned 42 on Wednesday. The former centre-forward has worked alongside Sandro Schwarz as assistant coach at the top Russian club Dynamo Moscow since November of last year.
A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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The Werkself impressed in the 4-0 home win over FC St. Pauli with a performance that pleased head coach Kasper Hjulmand that had previously being missing and which he now wants to "use as a boost". Defenders Jarell Quansah and Edmond Tapsoba in particular once again stood firm at the back and scored at the other end - the latter now has the most goal involvements by a centre-back in the top five leagues. However, the Bayer 04 players are already looking forward to the forthcoming fixtures with a hunger for success and optimism. The Werkself review of the game on Carnival Saturday.
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