Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 CEO: "With the passing of Franz Beckenbauer, football has lost a unique personality. He was appreciated and admired all over the world and achieved extraordinary things for the game as a player, coach and official. On behalf of our entire club, I would like to express our deep condolences on the death of Franz Beckenbauer and our deepest sympathy to all his family and friends. His services to football can hardly be put into words."
Simon Rolfes, Bayer 04 managing director for sport: "Franz Beckenbauer's death is not merely a great loss for German football. Our country has lost an extraordinary personality, a world-class sportsman who was respected and admired beyond our borders. Franz Beckenbauer was an idol of many generations, one of the best, if not the best German footballer of all time. A great player and 1974 World Cup-winning captain, who later also showed huge charisma as DFB team manager and won the 1990 World Cup with his team almost as if it was a matter of course. Bayer 04 Leverkusen honours the memory of a man who made sporting history. Our deepest sympathy goes to the family and friends of Franz Beckenbauer."
As a player, Beckenbauer won a host of trophies, particularly with FC Bayern Munich. He was named Germany's Footballer of the Year four times and won the Ballon d'Or twice. After 13 successful years in his native city, the former world-class libero moved to New York Cosmos, where he played alongside Brazilian legend Pelé, among others. At the end of his playing days, he returned to Germany and celebrated another Bundesliga title with Hamburger SV in 1982.
Beckenbauer won the World Cup with West Germany both as a player in 1974 and as team manager in 1990. Germany also owes the hosting of the 2006 World Cup to Der Kaiser, who headed the bidding team and also served as president of FC Bayern Munich and vice-president of the German FA (DFB) for many years.
Winger Synne Skinnes Hansen is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of the season. The 29-year-old, who will be out of contract, is set to join Valerenga IF back home in Norway.
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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 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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Analysing and further developing goalkeeping together is the target of the annual goalkeeping coaches meeting of the German Football Association (DFB). The goalkeeping coaches in the Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2 and the third division, divided into regional groups, meet every year under the guidance of DFB goalkeeping coordinator Marc Ziegler. Following 2023, the meeting of the goalkeeping coaches of professional clubs from the Western region took place yesterday, Tuesday 29 April, at the BayArena for the second time. The Werkself goalkeeping coach David Thiel acted as the host of the meeting and he made an impromptu contribution.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed to loan U19 striker Artem Stepanov to FC Nürnberg, currently tenth in Bundesliga 2, for the 2025/26 season. The Ukrainian centre-forward is set to gain match practice at a high level under the guidance of FCN coach and World Cup winner Miroslav Klose. The loan is due to run for twelve months.
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