Immediately before kick-off, the managing directors Fernando Carro and Rudi Völler plus sporting director Simon Rolfes will honour the brothers Lars and Sven Bender for their services to the Werkself. The twins have decided to end their impressive careers next week at the end of the current Bundesliga season.
Sven Elsinger also ends his time at Leverkusen. The head of the physiotherapy section leaves Bayer 04 after 13 years to concentrate on his practice back home in Hessen.
Bayer 04 are saving a special accolade for Lars Bender for a later date. After twelve years in a Leverkusen shirt, including five as captain, the 32-year-old Bender has been named a Werkself honorary captain. "We will only make the official presentation when we can hopefully have spectators back at the BayArena next season and give Lars the celebratory and emotional stage he deserves," said Rudi Völler.
Lars Bender will then join Rüdiger Vollborn, Carsten Ramelow, Ulf Kirsten, Bernd Schneider, Simon Rolfes and Stefan Kießling as the seventh honorary captain at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. "It is difficult to imagine a professional footballer having greater identification with a club than Lars does with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. His loyalty and his attitude over the years were exceptional. We owe huge gratitude to Lars," declared Fernando Carro.
Ahead of the home game against Union Berlin, Lars Bender sends an emotional message to the Bayer 04 family in the BayArena Aktuell magazine. Click HERE for the free digital edition.
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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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