Bresser comes from the Dutch second tier club De Graafschap where he achieved great success as the head of the youth academy for the past five years. "Jefta Bresser was responsible for an above average movement of players from the youth section to the first team. Over a half of the pro players at De Graafschap have come through from the club's youth set-up – those are outstanding numbers that to a great extent are down to Jefta's conceptional approach," said Simon Rolfes, Bayer 04 sporting managing director. "With his appointment, we want to carry on along the path we have taken before and drive forward the successful development of the past few years. It's about recruiting a bigger element of homegrown players to our first team squad."
52-year-old Bresser had a managerial role responsible for the individual development of youth players of all age groups between 2005 and 2015 at PSV Eindhoven, Fulham and Zenit St Petersburg. As with his previous clubs, Bresser will have an immediate input into the training of all the Leverkusen youth teams. "For me, it's an attractive and extremely motivating challenge to be able to make a decisive contribution to the youth section at such internationally successful club like Bayer 04 Leverkusen," said Bresser. "The talks with Simon Rolfes and the club won me over straightaway and inspire me for the task I will devote all my energy to: To establish Bayer 04 as a top club for youth football in Germany and beyond."
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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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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