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.
The Germany U19 team were beaten 2-0 by record champions Spain in the final of the U19 European Championship in Wales. Bayer 04 players Montrell Culbreath and Francis Onyeka (on loan at SV 07 Elversberg) were in the starting line-up and played the full 90 minutes.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have signed France U17 international Kenan Doganay. The 1.90-metre-tall defensive midfielder, who has Turkish roots, joins Leverkusen from the U19s at French top-flight club Olympique Lyon. He will initially train with and play for the U19 team.
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The Sports Tribunal of the German Football Association (DFB) has fined Bayer 04 Leverkusen €185,000 for spectators setting off pyrotechnic devices during a total of five competitive matches. This relates to four Bundesliga matches and the DFB Pokal semi-final against Bayern Munich. The highest individual fine relates to the away match at FC Köln at the end of April.
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A new addition to the Bayer 04 Women’s team central midfield: Kosovo international Lumbardha Misini is joining the Werkself from Swiss champions Servette. The 23-year-old has signed a contract to 30 June 2029.
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