While the last three players named, who played for 90 minutes on Sunday, spent their time working in the gym at the BayArena, Lukas Hradecky joined his team-mates on the training ground in cold temperatures. The recently decimated Werkself squad should be back up to strength on Thursday. "The most important thing is that everybody comes back fit and well," said Heiko Herrlich – above all in view of the important home game against VfB Stuttgart on Friday night (23 November, 20.30 CET). "We are well aware we have ground to make up – we want to produce a top performance for our fans," said the Werkself head coach. He will probably be able to call on Karim Bellarabi again following his muscle problems as he trained on Tuesday morning without any after-effects.
Autumn is here! The season is clearly here as evidenced by the increasingly bald trees and not least by the colourful foliage. Talking about being colourful! After the BayArena was lit up in purple last Saturday To mark World Prematurity Day, the Werkself ground will be lit up in orange on Sunday night between 17.00 and 22.0 CET. The reason is a campaign by the Zonta Clubs , "Orange your city" on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women with the Werkself involved on the initiative of the Zonta Club Leverkusen. Across the city, in addition to the BayArena, the water tower on the motorway junction, the 'Leverkugel' of the Sparkasse and the crossings of the B8 at the Chempark will also be lit up in orange.
The team captain Lars Bender was a guest on the Werkself Podcast on Tuesday afternoon with the presenter Cedrick Pick. The tenth episode saw the 28-year-old, who has made 282 appearances for Bayer 04 since 2009, look back at his whole career – in particular the time with the Werkself. In addition to his relationship with the club and the city of Leverkusen, the defensive all-rounder also provided insights into winning the silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games as well as missing out on the 2014 World Cup. The podcast will soon be available.
With his 60 Bundesliga goals, Kevin Volland has demonstrated he really has the ability to shoot with football boots on. Following Lukas Hradecky in October, the Werkself number 31 took part in the Sky Sport programme "My 11 - The playlist of the football stars" and in conversation with the presenter Maik Nöcker he revealed in a relaxed atmosphere the songs he most likes to hear and what they mean to him.
The Werkself's training camp in Weimarer Land all in one place: in our daily blog you'll find all the insights and updates from the day. The programme on day one (Sunday 2 August) includes a media round with managing director sport Simon Rolfes, free time for the team after the friendly against Rot-Weiss Essen and before an intensive week of training begins, as well as a coffee get-together where CEO Fernando Carro and Rolfes met around 100 fans in the afternoon.
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This fan meeting got off to a rather unexpected start. On Sunday afternoon, the Bayer 04 managing directors had just welcomed the fans present at the team hotel for the traditional get-together at the training camp when Fernando Carro’s phone rang. The CEO, glancing towards managing director sport Simon Rolfes with a smile, said: “We’ll just have to answer that quickly.” When asked by the fans what the call was actually about, the pair left it open with a wink. Instead, Carro and Rolfes then spent over an hour happily answering the fans’ many other questions.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed Kerim Alajbegovic’s transfer to Italian record champions Juventus. The club brought the 18-year-old attacking player back to Leverkusen this summer via a buy-back option, following a season at Red Bull Salzburg. Until his move to Austria, the Bosnia international had been playing for Bayer 04’s Under-19s.
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A warm welcome to the Weimarer Land, Bayer 04! The Werkself moved into their accommodation for this year’s training camp on Saturday evening. In Blankenhain, Thuringia, head coach Carles Martínez’s team have a programme of gruelling training sessions – several of which will be open to fans – and team-building activities lined up for the next six days. We’ll be following the Werkself up close and providing you with exclusive insights, quotes, photos and videos from the training camp.
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With 22 days to go until the start of the Bundesliga campaign, the Bayer 04 Women’s team have gained a fresh boost of confidence. In a friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk on Saturday afternoon, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team secured a 1–0 win. Lobke Loonen (20’) scored the winner for the Black and Reds at the Kurtekotten training centre.
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