After a strenuous and intensive week of training, the pros started work early on the final day in Austria. After breakfast, there was a pre-match routine at the team hotel ahead of the game against Mecca. After that, it is was a case of enjoying the remaining free time, packing bags and a last lunch at the team hotel Tauern Spa and then onto the bus, that took the Werkself to Grödig.
Before the Bayer 04 group could start the journey home, there was one final challenge. In a repeat of last year, the Herrlich team played their sixth friendly of the pre-season in Grödig near Salzburg in the afternoon. And it was against one of the oldest clubs in Saudi Arabia: Al-Wahda Mecca. With Fernando Carro, Rudi Völler, sporting director Jonas Boldt and former Bayer 04 player Ramalho looking on, the Werkself produced a battling performance in spite of the rigours of recent days and high temperatures once again; they earned a close but deserved 1-0 victory.
Straight after showering and a light evening meal in the dressing room at the Goldberg Stadium, it was onto the team bus for the short trip to Salzburg Airport. The plane took off at 19.30 CET on course for Cologne/Bonn. After landing at 20.40 CET it was time for the players, coaches and staff to be reunited with their families. And that was the end of the final chapter of the 2018 training camp in Austria. Monday is a day off and Tuesday will see the returning World Cup runner-up Tin Jedvaj and new signing Paulinho complete performance test – Heiko Herrlich's team will return to the training ground at the BayArena on Wednesday (8 August) .
Bayer 04 Leverkusen have secured a new premium partner in the form of DRIVIO. DRIVIO, already part of the club’s partner portfolio as a reliable car subscription partner for Bayer 04, will continue to support the club in this capacity and, with immediate effect, also join the premium group of companies that cooperate closely with the Werkself. The premium and car subscription partnership between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and DRIVIO will initially run until 30 June 2027.
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Following last weekend’s big game against Wolfsburg, Bayer 04 Women face another exciting challenge as they visit Hoffenheim to kick off Matchday 3 in the Google Pixel Bundesliga on Friday (kick-off: 18:30 CEST).
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Under the slogan ‘Holidays without War’, 60 children from war-torn Ukraine took part in the summer camp organised by the German-Ukrainian association Blau-Gelbes Kreuz in Leverkusen and the surrounding area in August. The children aged between 10 and 14 – many of whom have lost their parents in the war – come from the Ukrainian twin towns of Leverkusen, Cologne and Monheim am Rhein: Nikopol, Dnipro and Volodymyr. Bayer 04, Bayer AG and TSV Bayer 04 supported the camp to mark its 10th anniversary, enabling even more children and young people than in previous years to spend a few carefree days’ holiday away from the war in the Rhineland.
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Midfielder Ruby Grant is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen and joining Portuguese runners-up Sporting CP a year before her contract expires. The 24-year-old has been at the Werkself since January 2025.
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New to Leverkusen and straight up onto the roof at the BayArena: Guéla Doué has arrived. In an interview with Werkself TV, the new right-back talks about his previous links with Bayer 04 and how much he’s looking forward to his first home match. Have a look!
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