
The central midfielder will play for the Bayer 04 U19 team. 16-year-old Sertdemir, who is of Turkish descent, is set to start with the first team squad in the pre-season under the new Leverkusen head coach Gerardo Seoane. The Swiss coach will meet up with his players for the first time on 5 July in Leverkusen.
“Zidan Sertdemir has a special talent. His signing is a great success for our scouting department after having had him on their radar for three years,” reported Bayer 04 sporting director Simon Rolfes. “We see great potential in Zidan and believe he will make the grade in professional football. That’s why we are including him in training with the first team straight away. Zidan should get experience with the senior squad early on and then take his time in moving up to the next level.”

The Werkself need a win in their penultimate match of the season at RB Leipzig on Monday evening (18:00 CEST) to keep their hopes of third place alive until the final day. After Eintracht Frankfurt lost on Saturday, Roberto Pätzold's side can close the gap on their rivals to two points and leave it all to play for next Sunday.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-3 loss at VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 33 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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Down to fifth from fourth place despite taking an early lead: in the head-to-head for a Champions League spot, Bayer 04 were 1-0 up at VfB Stuttgart with just a minute played thanks to an Aleix Garcia strike, but ultimately lost 3-1 (2-1) to the more determined hosts. It meant the Swabians leapfrogged the Werkself in the Bundesliga table on the penultimate matchday.
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Today sees Bayer 04 go head-to-head with their next direct rivals in the race for Champions League qualification (kick-off 15:30 CEST). Opponents Stuttgart are currently fifth in the table, level on points with the Werkself but one place below them due to a three-goal inferior goal difference. The Black and Reds' record at Bad Cannstatt tells a clearer story: they've not lost at VfB for over 16 years. One important factor in securing what would be three crucial points away from home is Leverkusen's strength on the counter-attack. Whilst Stuttgart are also extremely dangerous going forward, they will be without their captain. Today’s matchday news.
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