Werkself supporters had the chance to vote. Under bundesliga-allstars.bayer04.de, participants had to put together an 18-man squad plus coach from 294 players and 25 coaches. Most votes went to Ulf Kirsten. 90.89 % of participants included 'Der Schwatte' in their squads. He was followed by Bernd 'Schnix' Schneider (90.02 %) and Stefan 'Kies' Kießling (82.39%). They led the starting eleven with the most votes: Rüdiger Vollborn – Lars Bender, Jens Nowotny, Lucio, Zé Roberto – Carsten Ramelow, Simon Rolfes – Bernd Schneider, Michael Ballack – Ulf Kirsten, Stefan Kießling.
The supporters only had one vote for the coaches. Christoph Daum (33.92%) led the way ahead of Jupp Heynckes (23.12%) and Klaus Toppmöller (12.37%). The fact that different fan generations took part in the vote is demonstrated by the following names. Jürgen Gelsdorf and Thomas Hörster are the only two promotion heroes of 1979 and the current Werkself squad has four players: Lars Bender, Julian Brandt, Kai Havertz and Jonathan Tah.
The last six players will definitely be there when Bayer 04 entertain Schalke 04 in the last home game of the season on Saturday, 11 May 2019. The last four will hopefully be on the pitch and the two promotion heroes in the stands. The management of Bayer 04 Leverkusen have invited the 'Bundesliga All Stars' voted for by the fans online to the match. They will watch the game from the stands and then review "40 years of the Bundesliga under the Bayer Cross'.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen finally reached the top flight on 13 May 1979. A 3-3 draw against Bayer 05 Uerdingen at the Ullrich Harberland Stadium saw the team coached by Willibert Kramer secure promotion to the top-flight in Germany. The adventure of the Bundesliga started on 11 August 1979 with an away game at Bayern Munich. Bayer 04 have remained in the top division since that day – in addition to the Werkself, only Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund share that record.
Goalkeepers: René Adler, Hans-Jörg Butt, Bernd Leno, Rüdiger Vollborn
Defence: Daniel Carvajal, Manuel Friedrich, Jürgen Gelsdorf, Thomas Hörster, Sami Hyypiä, Jorginho, Juan, Lucio, Jens Nowotny, Diego Placente, Jonathan Tah, Christian Wörns
Midfield: Michael Ballack, Lars Bender, Gonzalo Castro, Emerson, Kai Havertz, Toni Kroos, Hans-Peter Lehnhoff, Carsten Ramelow, Renato Augusto, Simon Rolfes, Bernd Schneider, Bernd Schuster, Arturo Vidal, Zé Roberto
Attack: Dimitar Berbatov, Julian Brandt, Bum-kun Cha, Stefan Kießling, Ulf Kirsten, Oliver Neuville, Paulo Sergio, Andreas Thom, Rudi Völler, Herbert Waas
Coaches: Christoph Daum, Peter Hermann, Jupp Heynckes, Erich Ribbeck, Klaus Toppmöller
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 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 lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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