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.
Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
Show more
Bayer 04 have agreed a loan deal for Jeanuel Belocian to join fellow Bundesliga club Wolfsburg on loan until the end of the season. The 20-year-old defender’s contract in Leverkusen runs until 30 June 2029.
Show more
After Leverkusen's eSports team spectacularly won the first showdown in the history of the VBL Club Championship last year, two rather sobering editions followed with two early exits. Now, in Showdown Four, cousins Marc and Sean Landwehr have once again made it into the offline knockout phase. And in this phase, Bochum awaits on Monday, 2 February (live on the VBL's Twitch channel from 16:00 CET). Here's a look at their opponents and what might happen next.
Show more
SAB-P GmbH is to become Bayer 04 Leverkusen's first official inclusion partner. The company, which has previously been involved in the club's Business Club, is underlining its social commitment to inclusion with an agreement that runs until 31 May 2027. Among other things, it will be the shirt sponsor of the Inclusion Team from the 2026/27 season onwards.
Show more
The Werkself were impressive in the 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt with clinical finishing and a first half "at a high level" that head coach Kasper Hjulmand draws a lot of positives from. The same should apply to Arthur, who scored for the first time in the Bundesliga. Edmond Tapsoba, for his part, was happy about his 250th appearance in a Bayer 04 jersey. "I think we're slowly finding our feet again," said goalscorer Malik Tillman, summing up the performance. The Werkself review.
Show more
