The venue, where coach Heiko Herrlich will hold soon his press conferences before and after Bundesliga matches, was a hive of activity on Thursday afternoon. Around 60 children were in the media centre at the BayArena waiting for their Werkself star to appear on the top table. When the newly crowned U21 European Champion Dominik Kohr entered the room his name was announced as is usual for home games at the BayArena.
The youngsters then had the opportunity to pose a whole range of questions. The kids wanted to know from the 23-year-old who his best friend is in the team, what he most like doing in his own time, who his favourite opponents are, where favourite stadiums are, what his dog's called, what was his first football club, what he thinks of women's football and what size shoe he takes. The Werkself number 21 answered the questions with humour and charm.
After a question and answer session lasting 90 minutes, Dominik Kohr, who returned to Bayer 04 this summer after two years on loan at FC Augsburg, took time out to sign autographs. The event ended with a communal photo.
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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