"Sadik Fofana has proved to be very promising since his move from Alemannia Aachen to Bayer 04 two years ago and has demonstrated his potential in the youth teams. He often joined in training with the first team last season and impressed there as well," declared sporting director Simon Rolfes. "By joining a top second division side, Sadik will gain important new experience and, above all, pick up match practice at a high level. We believe he will have a successful professional career and are convinced that he will develop accordingly at Nürnberg."
Fofana is very happy about joining the first team squad. "The three-year contract at Bayer 04 is confirmation to me that I'm on the right track. And I'm extremely motivated by the deal with Nürnberg. The club challenged for promotion to the Bundesliga for much of last season," said Fofana. "It's a great opportunity for me. I have a great chance to show what I can do there and continue to develop as a player."
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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