"In addition to impressive pace, Arthur primarily has footballing finesse. He is agile, plays with maturity in defence and is impressive in attack," said Bayer 04 sporting managing director Simon Rolfes. "His signing is a transfer with a long-term perspective and in Arthur we have gained a player capable of developing who we believe can play an important role in the medium term."
"I'm very proud to soon be able to play for Bayer 04. The club is well known and popular in Brazil and a lot of my fellow countrymen have become outstanding football players at Leverkusen," declared the Belo Horizonte-born Arthur. "I'm hoping for that too and I will give my all to be successful with the club – in the Bundesliga and also in European competitions."
The 20-year-old made his debut for the Selecao in Brazil's 2-1 defeat at the weekend in a friendly against Morocco who finished fourth at the World Cup. In the game in Tangiers, the 5'9" Arthur was brought on as a substitute in added time for the Tottenham Hotspur player Emerson by the caretaker coach Ramon Menezes who played for the Werkself for a season in 1995/96 as Ramon Hubner. Arthur played under Menezes for the Brazil U20 team in February 2023 that beat Uruguay 2-0 in the final of the South American U20 Championship.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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