Werner Wenning, who brought Rolfes back under the Bayer Cross as chair of the shareholders committee in 2018, said: "Simon Rolfes has understood in a special way how to combine his experience and qualities as a player with the demands of management. He has great expertise in the game and an outstanding eye for talent in the global market but he also has an enormous work rate and the unmistakable DNA of Bayer 04. We are very happy that Simon Rolfes will continue to put these qualities to the service of Bayer 04."
Simon Rolfes said: "Bayer 04 was and is a part of my life. I've learned a lot here and I'm happy that I can contribute to the further development of the club together with a lot of professional and committed colleagues. We have achieved a lot in recent years and gained enormous quality and not just on the pitch. Beyond that, Bayer 04 have a lot of what a demanding, modern club hungry for success need to offer. I really have fun working in such professional environment. So I'm very happy to be able to continue together along this exciting path."
Simon Rolfes joined Bayer 04 as a player in 2005 from Alemannia Aachen. Up to the end of his playing career ten years later, he made 377 appearances for the Werkself, scored 49 goals and played a leading role in the team as captain. During his time at Leverkusen, Rolfes made his debut for Germany earning 26 caps and taking part in the 2008 European Championships. After ending his playing career, he completed the two-year UEFA course 'Master for International Players' (MIP). Rolfes returned to Bayer 04 in 2018 to take up the post as head of youth and development and he took over from Jonas Boldt as sporting director five months later. Rolfes was the successor to Rudi Völler in the role of sporting managing director on 1 July 2022.
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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With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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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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The ‘year after’ the most successful year in the club's history brought many changes at Bayer 04. In an exclusive double interview with bayer04.de shortly before the Christmas break, Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes spoke about building a new team capable of winning trophies, the work of coach Kasper Hjulmand, the young new signings who have quickly developed into key players, and their personal plans for the Christmas holidays. Their outlook for the coming year also shows that the potential is far from exhausted and ambitions remain high.
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Last-minute ecstasy, huge disappointment and a historic performance on the European stage - 2025 was a real emotional roller coaster, especially for the U19s. A rousing run in the knockout phase secured the team a place in the final of the German championships, where they lost by the narrowest of margins. Despite the departure of several key players, the young Werkself team quickly regained their usual strength and qualified for the knockout rounds in the UEFA Youth League for the first time at the end of the year. In 2025, youngsters Jeremiah Mensah and Montrell Culbreath made their debuts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. The other youth teams also contributed great performances and a number of trophies to the collective Black and Red success, while the successful Bayer 04 Future Kids project broke new ground. Read on for the 2025 review of the youth teams.
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