Based on official Bundesliga match data, 40 players were picked out who have particularly impressed in the current season - eight of them part of the Werkself side who were crowned German champions last weekend!
The nominated players from the Bayer 04 squad are goalkeeper and captain Lukas Hradecky, defenders Jonathan Tah, Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo, midfield trio Granit Xhaka, Exequiel Palacios and Florian Wirtz as well as striker Victor Boniface.
A jury will decide which Bundesliga players make the cut for the Team of the Season. This is comprised of - in line with the monthly Player of the Month and Rookie of the Month awards - firstly a panel of experts (30% weighting), to which the Bundesliga Legends Network and selected media partners belong. Alongside the expert panel, the fans also have a strong say in the vote (40%), with the remaining 30% coming from the team captains of the 18 Bundesliga clubs.
The top 11 players will become part of the Bundesliga Team of the Season presented by EA Sports and receive considerably enhanced stats in FIFA 23.
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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