However, not all the pros are on their summer holidays – international players Julian Brandt, Bernd Leno and Jonathan Tah meet up today with the rest of the Germany squad for a training camp in Eppan (South Tyrol) where the 27-man group will prepare for the forthcoming World Cup (14 June to 15 July) under the guidance of national coach Joachim Löw up to 7 June. Three days before that, Löw will have to decide on his 23 players for the tournament in Russia.
As part of the World Cup preparations, ‘Die Mannschaft’ play Austria in a friendly in Klagenfurt on 2 June. This gives Brandt, Leno and Tah the possibility of a reunion with Julian Baumgartlinger who like Aleksandar Dragovic, currently on loan at Leicester City, was called up to the Austria scored yesterday by national coach Franco Foda. ‘Baumi’ has captained Austria since September 2016 but they have not qualified for the World Cup. In addition to the game against Germany, Austria also have friendlies against World Cup teams Russia (30 May in Innsbruck) and Brazil (10 June in Vienna)..
The final friendly during the ‘mission title defence’ for Germany is on Friday 8 June (19.30 CET, live on ARD) against Saudi Arabia at the BayArena. After the match, the draw for the first round proper of the DFB Cup (17 to 20 August) will be held at the Football Museum in Dortmund at 22.15 CET – the Werkself are one of 32 teams in the draw.
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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