Gerardo Seoane on…
…the first days in Zell am See-Kaprun: We had a relaxed journey here and are happy with everything to date. As with every year, we have great conditions here – the pitch is brilliant, the hotel is great. The crucial thing at a training camp above all is for us to have all the players together for a longer period of time. Then we have enough time to work with the individual players and also able to have lots of discussions as a team and individually.
…the timing of the training camp: As we wanted to have all the players on board at the training camp, we consciously decided to travel later this time. Last year a lot of players were still at the European Championships at the time of the training camp. Now we are all here and are already a step further on. That means we are able to be more targeted in our work this week. We want to put the content of the previous sessions into practice in the friendly against Panathinaikos and then the training content from the other days in the game against Udinese.
…the state of play with the Werkself: We've more or less had this set-up for over a year and that's an important point. At the start of last season, we faced one or two challenges above all due to the signing of a lot of young players in defence. They have all developed extremely well since then. Therefore, I believe we are much more solid.
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 personalised 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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Kasper Hjulmand has led the Werkself back to winning ways and is back in the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League with Bayer 04 after the 3-0 win against Villarreal on Wednesday evening. In an interview with the Werkself magazine at the BayArena in the team meeting room, directly opposite the dressing room, he provided some special insights for the current issue, which was published in January. A conversation with the 53-year-old coach about values, attitudes and personal experiences as well as interests outside of football.
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The thrilling 3-1 win for Bayer 04 against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Hinrunde is a fond memory for Alejandro Grimaldo, with his brace from free kicks, and coach Kasper Hjulmand, who was in the dugout under the Cross for the first time. Now comes the return fixture in the metropolis on the River Main and after going out of the DFB Pokal and the Champions League, the full focus at Eintracht, currently managed by two interim coaches, is now on the Bundesliga. For their part, the Werkself will do everything in their power to continue the longest winning run against a Bundesliga club. The matchday news.
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Bayer 04 have ended Artem Stepanov’s loan deal at Nürnberg and agreed a new loan to Utrecht in the Netherlands. The Ukrainian striker did not play as much as hoped for at the Bundesliga 2 club and will now continue his development in the Eredivisie for the rest of 2025/26.
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The draw for the knockout play-offs of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League was made on Friday, 30 January and saw Bayer 04 paired with Olympiacos. It’s a reunion with the Greek side following the Werkself’s 2-0 loss in Athens on Matchday 7 of the league phase.
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