"Mark Flekken has a great wealth of ability that a goalkeeper needs in top-level football today. He has great reflexes, dominates his area well and has enormous reach with his height of 1.95 metres. Mark has an impressive physical presence and in terms of football he was one of the best keepers in the Premier League over the past two years," said Bayer 04 sporting managing director Simon Rolfes. "He knows the Bundesliga from his successful time at Freiburg. The years in England and his role in the Netherlands team have brought Mark a great amount of international experience on top of that. We are very well placed in the goalkeeping position for the team in the coming years," declared Rolfes.
For the Oranje keeper with eight caps, the move to Bayer 04 is "the next and special step in my career. Many games against absolutely world-class players in England have raised the level of my game," said Flekken. "I'm very happy to be able to dedicate my qualities now to a top German club with big national and European targets. I love the Bundesliga and I'm obviously also looking forward to playing for the Werkself in the Champions League."
Flekken returns from England as a seasoned player to Germany where he was a U17 player for Alemannia Aachen. After playing for Greuther Fürth and MSV Duisburg, he signed for SC Freiburg in 2018 where he made his breakthrough. He played 96 games for the Freiburg side and became one of the top goalkeepers in the league, which brought Flekken to the attention of foreign clubs. The model athlete made 74 Premier League appearances for Brentford over two seasons.
Lots of experience from the Premier League and Bundesliga: Mark Flekken profile
Despite the international break, numerous Werkself fans turned up at the BayArena on Saturday 3 October. The occasion: Bayer 04, together with Bayer Vital and main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer, organised a Health Day. In the stadium’s Premium Lounge, guests listened to fascinating talks on the subject of cancer, featuring, amongst others, Bayer 04 record appearance holder Rüdiger Vollborn and former Werkself player Hans Sarpei. Afterwards, young and old alike enjoyed interactive stations such as a grip strength test and eye pupil test.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 3-2 win against Werder Bremen on Matchday 6 of the 2026/27 Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga.
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Thanks to a thrilling second-half comeback, the Bayer 04 women’s team secured their first home win this term. Against Werder Bremen, the Werkself stepped up their game significantly after the break and turned a two-goal deficit into a 3–2 win. Cornelia Kramer (54’, 56’) and Lobke Loonen (81’) scored the goals that earned coach Roberto Pätzold’s team their first points at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium in the current Bundesliga season.
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A commanding performance: In a friendly during the international break, Bayer 04 defeated third-division newcomers SC Fortuna Köln 6–0. Martin Terrier and Patrik Schick scored twice each with Nathan Tella and Miguel Gutiérrez netting the other goals for Leverkusen. Due to preparations at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium for tonight’s Bayer 04 women’s Bundesliga home game against Werder Bremen (kick-off: 18:30 CEST), the fixture against the Cologne side was played at the Werkself training ground.
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