Standing ovations, resounding applause and warm embraces: After his teammates gave him a fitting reception a few days ago, Bayer 04 members of staff now congratulated Kossounou on winning AFCON with the Ivory Coast.
"I experienced everything at the tournament. Losing 4-0 in front of our own fans in the group stage was painful. But we kept on going and won in the end. That helps me and my mentality – hopefully I can pass on some of that to the team," said Kossounou.
The Ivorians started the tournament in their own country with a 2-0 win against Guinea-Bissau. However, the hosts lost the other group matches against Nigeria (0-1) and Equatorial Guinea (0-4). Ivory Coast went through the knockout rounds as one of the four best third-placed teams. Werkself player Kossounou did not play in the three group matches. Coach Jean-Louis Gasset was sacked following the two defeats and before the Round of 16 game.
His successor Emerse Faé made changes for the knockout rounds including bringing Kossounou into the line-up. The Leverkusen defender played 116 minutes in the win on penalties against Senegal in the Round of 16. The following quarter-final against Mali saw Kossounou sent off on 43 minutes for a second yellow card offence but the Ivorians went on to win 2-1 in extra time. That was followed by a 1-0 win against the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the suspended Werkself player looking on from the stands. Kossounou returned to the starting XI for the final between Ivory Coast and Nigeria – and he celebrated a 2-1 victory with his teammates.
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, is Bayer 04’s record appearance holder in the Bundesliga with 401 games, and is the only Leverkusen 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 encyclopaedia takes Werkself fans on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month with our series ‘Rudi recounts…’.
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The Werkself are away at Roma for the first leg of their 2023/24 UEFA Europa League semi-final tie on Thursday, 2 May (kick-off 9pm CEST). The Bayer 04 Fan Liaison team has all the info you need for the match at the Stadio Olimpico in the Italian capital…
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Bayer 04 host AS Roma at the BayArena in the UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg on Thursday, 9 May (kick-off: 9pm CEST). Here’s all you need to know about how to get tickets.
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There's late, and then there's Leverkusen late: once again, Bayer 04 averted a first defeat of the season at the death in Saturday evening's match against VfB Stuttgart, and have now gained nine points through goals fromthe 90th minute onwards this season - a new Bundesliga record. In all competitions, Xabi Alonso's side have scored 16 goals in stoppage time. More analysis of a thrilling contest in our Werkself Review.
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