
The five returned to the BayArena on Sunday morning to complete the performance tests in the Werkstatt that the rest of the squad put behind them on Thursday. "It was good! Everything went perfectly for me," said Kai Havertz. "You keep fit on holiday to make sure you pass the tests." But in the first two weeks after the international fixtures it was a question of putting his feet up – "switching off and doing nothing is also important. But then I started my individual training programme that they gave us to use at home," explained the 20-year-old.
The returnees first completed an individual warm-up routine in the training session before moving on to passing and shooting drills and finally joining the rest of the squad for a practice match. Havertz had a positive impression of the three new signings Kerem Demirbay, Moussa Diaby and Daley Sinkgraven: "We've done very well strengthening the squad and we'll definitely have fun with these players."
At the start of the week, Peter Bosz had 20 pros plus the two U19 players Adrian Stanilewicz and Marcel Lotka at his disposal. Jonathan Tah, Charles Aránguiz and Leon Bailey will join the rest of the squad at the training camp in Zell am See-Kaprun (15 to 21 July). Julian Baumgartlinger is still sidelined. The Austrian injured an ankle in the international break and is currently working on a one-to-one basis in rehab with a physiotherapist in Munich. Baumgartlinger is expected to return to Leverkusen on Wednesday.

Attacking midfielder Paulina Bartz is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen for good on a permanent move to Hamburger SV in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga. The 21-year-old, who was on loan to the newly promoted side in the winter, originally had a contract to 2027.
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The Bayer 04 Football School opened in 2007 – now this successful programme is getting a new name and a new logo: with immediate effect, the Bayer 04 Football School powered by BarmeniaGothaer is becoming the Bayer 04 Football Academy powered by BarmeniaGothaer.
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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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The sustainable use of the BayArena seats removed as part of the current stadium upgrade has taken on a new dimension: Following on from numerous Bayer 04 fans receiving their ‘Undefeated Champions seats’ and various clubs and community organisations from Leverkusen and the wider region having collected the dismantled seats, Blau-Gelbe Kreuz e.V. also made their way to the BayArena recently. The German-Ukrainian aid organisation took away around 2,100 seats; in Ukraine, these will be used to upgrade the sports infrastructure of two clubs.
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