
Erik ten Hag will be supported by a new group of coaching staff. Newcomers on Monday will include ten Hag's Dutch fellow countrymen and assistant coaches Andries Ulderink and Rogier Meijer. They will be joined by Miguel Angel Campos Vasquez as head of performance and fitness coach Alessandro Schoenmaker.
55-year-old former assistant coach Ulderink took over as temporary head coach of top-flight Royal Antwerp FC on 4 March 2025. His contract with the Belgian club ran out a week ago on 30 June. Previously he was assistant coach at Rangers and Twente Enschede. Ulderink also worked as head coach at Ajax Cape Town (South Africa) and at the Dutch second division club De Graafschap.
Rogier Meijer most recently worked in the Dutch Eredivisie at NEC Nijmegen. The 43-year-old was assistant coach there in 2019 before taking charge of the team a year later and in his first season in charge he led them to promotion to the top-flight. NEC reached the final of the KNVB Cup in 2024 and finished eighth in the league in 2024/25. Meijer was the Nijmegen coach for 194 games.
Miguel Angel Campos Vasquez worked as a fitness coach at the Spanish clubs UD Levante, FC Granada, UD Almeria and FC Cadiz. He also looked after players in England at Watford and the 46-year-old Spaniard has worked for the Algerian FA. Most recently he was responsible for the fitness of Spain youth teams up to the level of the U21s.
Alessandro Schoenmaker has Brazilian heritage and he worked alongside ten Hag at Ajax. 45-year-old Schoenmaker has a wide range of experience in top level football. Anderlecht, Crystal Palace, Newcastle United and Inter Milan are some of his former clubs. In 2010 Schoenmaker worked in the Bundesliga as fitness coach at VfL Wolfsburg.
The Bayer 04 coaching staff also includes established fitness coaches Markus Müller and Jonas Rath. Erik ten Hag’s inner circle will include Marcel Daum as analysis assistant coach, analyst Simon Lackmann, head of sports science Dr. Malte Krüger and sports scientist Prisca Volmary.

Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen has gained a new partner in digital gaming platform Crown Coins, which joins the Bundesliga runners-up's Sponsors Club with immediate effect. The one-and-a-half-year contract runs until 30 June 2027.
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The Werkself host VfB Stuttgart this evening (10 January, 18:30 CET), a side whose recent Bundesliga form has been indifferent but who have regularly produced top performances in the DFB Pokal and UEFA Europa League, and who have a key player back in the squad in striker Ermedin Demirovic. Off the pitch, the BayArena faithful will be able to see the remaining stoppage time live on the video screens. The Matchday News.
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The Werkself face a tough challenge in the first game of 2026 when VfB Stuttgart visit the BayArena on Saturday, 10 January (kick-off: 18:30 CET). Ahead of the top-of-the-table clash, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about his impressions of training this week, anticipation of the start of the new calendar year and the personnel situation.
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