The 42-year-old Spaniard, Carles Martínez, will be assisted by his compatriots Pol García and Sergi Runge as assistant coaches. Martínez most recently enjoyed a successful spell working alongside his long-time colleague García at FC Toulouse in France, among other clubs. Runge was promoted at Bayer 04 in autumn 2025 from U19 head coach to assistant coach of the first team. David Thiel remains goalkeeping coach; he has been with the club since 1994 and has worked with the Werkself’s keepers since 2012. Jan Conradi is the assistant goalkeeping coach.
Also continuing in their current roles are Marcel Daum (assistant coach for analysis) and Simon Lackmann (analyst), as well as Miguel Angel Campos (head of performance).
New additions to the coaching team are Samuel López as Head of Strength and Conditioning within the Performance department, and Igor Labaien as a personal coach. Labaien previously held this role at Spanish top-flight side Espanyol.
The coaching team also includes Markus Müller, Jonas Rath, Daniel Jouvin (all fitness coaches), Dr Malte Krüger (Head of Sports Science and Fitness) and Prisca Volmary (sports scientist).
Pre-season training at the BayArena tomorrow, Tuesday 14 July (from 11:00 CEST), starts with an open session. The club will also livestream the session free of charge on bayer04.de, the Bayer 04 app and YouTube.
Newly promoted SV 07 Elversberg will begin the 2026/27 season as Bundesliga club number 59. The Saarland club start their first Bundesliga campaign at home to the Werkself on Saturday, 29 August (kick-off 15:30 CEST) at the URSAPHARM Arena on Kaiserlinde, which is currently being rebuilt. For one Leverkusen player in the ‘Elv’ line-up, the clash will be a special reunion. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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The fixture details for the Bayer 04 Women’s first match in the 2026/27 DFB Pokal has been confirmed: As announced by the German Football Association (DFB) on Thursday morning, the Leverkusen Women will face second-tier side FC Viktoria Berlin in the first round on Sunday 27 September at 14:00 CEST.
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Once again, well over 100 Werkself fans were delighted to receive an invitation from the club’s record appearance-maker, Rüdiger Vollborn, to the sold-out Schwadbud at the BayArena. This time, the supporters listened as the club historian provided fascinating, exclusive insights into the period from Bayer 04 being founded in 1904 to the club’s promotion to the Bundesliga in 1979. A journey through time is also planned for the upcoming ‘Rudi lädt ein’ event in early November – this time focusing on the years of the Nazi regime.
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Getting in the mood for the new season together, exchanging ideas and looking ahead to the coming months: Bayer 04 welcomed partners to the BayArena for the annual sponsors season-launch event. In a relaxed atmosphere, the management, head coach and players came together with representatives from partner companies to celebrate the start of the 2026/27 season.
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