
While the Werkself early risers opted for a hot-air balloon trip over the pyramids of Teotihuacán, nine players made their way to the Soccer Clinic Miguel Hidalgo. Moussa Diaby, Odilon Kossounou, Sardar Azmoun and Co. played football and joked with disadvantage kids for over an hour with both sides enjoying it immensely. The event was rounded off perfectly with an autograph session.







Back at the hotel, the majority of the Werkself players watched the Europa League final between Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers. Under the Mexican midday sun – due to the time difference the final started at two o’clock in the afternoon in Mexico – Lukas Hradecky and Co. crossed their fingers for Eintracht on the roof terrace at the team hotel.
The Seoane team split into two groups for the final part of the day. The event was the Bayer Night. One half the players plus sporting director Simon Rolfes and head coach Gerardo Seoane met 200 employees of Bayer Crop Science first in the team hotel and then in the headquarters of Bayer Mexico.
Group 2 with the two managing directors Fernando Carro and Rudi Völler had a meet and greet with employees of Bayer Consumer Health. In a Bayer 04-branded hall in a hotel in the city, the Werkself players first held a photo and autograph session, clients of Bayer México Consumer Health and Pharmaceuticals bringing their Bayer 04 shirts with them to be signed by Exequiel Palacios, Piero Hincapie, Moussa Diaby and Co. That was followed by the Bayer Night in a relaxed atmosphere with a buffet, DJ and cocktail crash course. Odilon Kossounou and Edmond Tapsoba tested out the table football game and there was live music provided by a mariachi band.
The day begins from a Black and Red perspective early in the morning: Sporting managing director Rudi Völler and a small delegation including his successor Simon Rolfes will make a three-hour journey to Querétaro to visit an orphanage. The 62-year-old has been an ambassador for the Egidius Braun Foundation of the German Football Association (DFB) for several decades and they support the institution in Querétaro. Völler was there together with Reiner Calmund in 1999 and there have been many visits to the city north of Mexico City since then – most recently ten days ago.
The rest of the Black and Red delegation are set to visit a CSR Rehab Project where the players and coaches will help to clean up a football pitch. Sightseeing is on the agenda in the afternoon with a visit to the floating gardens of Xochimilo, with a boat trip planned at the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.

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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No points in the Kraichgau: the Werkself lost 1-0 away to top-six rivals TSG Hoffenheim on Bundesliga Matchday 18. Wouter Burger scored the only goal with a free kick in the ninth minute. In an uneventful contest, the Werkself tried hard to find an equaliser but were repeatedly thwarted.
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The meeting between fifth and sixth on Saturday afternoon (17 January, 15:30 CET) is a hard one to predict. While the Werkself can take confidence from their historic record at TSG Hoffenheim, the hosts are currently enjoying their second-best Bundesliga campaign and have lost just one of their last 10 games. Another good omen for Bayer 04: Daniel Schlager also refereed Leverkusen's last victory in Sinsheim (4-1). The Matchday News.
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At the end of the winter training camp in Portugal, the Bayer 04 Women convincingly mastered their friendly ahead of the start of the second half of the season. In the match against Swiss league leaders Servette FCCF, coach Roberto Pätzold's team won 3-0 at the Monte Gordo Sports Complex. Carlotta Wamser (4’), Vanessa Fudalla (18’) and Loreen Bender (53’) scored for Bayer 04, who have been preparing for the Rückrunde in the Algarve since last Saturday.
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The German Football League (DFL) has rescheduled the postponed fixture at Hamburger SV on Bundesliga matchday 17. The match, due to be played on Tuesday, has now been rescheduled for Wednesday, 4 March (kick-off: 20:30 CET).
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