"The team have been deeply involved with this catastrophe over the past few days. There have been a lot of discussions here in the training camp in Austria and all of them are affected given the suffering that the floods have brought to so many people," said head coach Gerardo Seoane. "The lads want to play their part in helping out and therefore we have decided together that we will play a benefit match at the earliest opportunity in aid of the victims. Where and when still has to be planned in detail. But we, as Bayer 04 Leverkusen, want to show our solidarity like so many other people."
The Bayer 04 Veterans will also play a benefit match in support of the flood victims. On Tuesday, 27 July (kick-off: 18.00 CEST) the former Werkself players will be in action at Wiedbachtaler Sportfreunden Neitersen. The match will be played in Neitersen at the Auf der Emma sports ground. The Bayer 04 team will include former players Jens Nowotny, Ramazan Özcan and Hanno Balitsch.
In addition to the match against the Sportfreunde, the Veterans will also play in Leichlingen. The sports ground was also damaged by the floods. Further information on the date of the match and the opposition is to follow.
“Year after year, this is an incredibly valuable gathering, both in terms of the content covered and the opportunity for mutual discussion,” stressed Bayer 04 goalkeeping coach David Thiel in his welcoming address at this year’s goalkeeping coaches’ meeting. This was the third time in four seasons that the event had been held at the BayArena. Organised by the German Football Association (DFB), the meeting brought together goalkeeping coaches from the Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2 and the 3rd division from the west region. For the first time this year, goalkeeping coaches from the youth performance centres (NLZ) were also present. Bayer 04 fitness coach Markus Müller provided fascinating insights into the specific fitness training carried out with the Werkself’s goalkeepers.
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It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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