There were again no elections held this year. New elections will be held in 2023. Linda Schöttler (Women), Friedhelm Renno (Council of Elders), Dirk Dreher (Veterans team) and Roman Klossek (Youth) plus Jürgen Gelsdorf as chair of the football section have all recently been confirmed in their posts.
The welcome from Jürgen Gelsdorf was followed by remembering Bayer 04 members who have passed away over the last twelve months. Then came the time to honour those members who have been part of TSV Bayer 04 for 25 years and longer. The following were honoured for 25 years of Bayer 04 membership: Thomas Gesella and Fabian Ewertz. Honouring for 40 years of membership went to: Dr. Andreas Offermann. Gerd Kruse could look back at 50 years of membership. And that’s not all: Jürgen Koller, Alfons Kanthak and Klaus-Dieter Hensgen have been loyal to the club for 70 years. All those honoured this year and from the past three years have been invited to attend a Werkself Bundesliga match next season.
The management on the podium then provided a review of the sporting year. Linda Schöttler, general manager of the Bayer 04 Women’s team started. Thomas Eichin, head of the Performance Centre at Kurtekotten, then reported on the work at Kurtekotten and Dirk Dreher presented the preview of coming events involving the Bayer 04 Veterans team.
No motions were submitted to the meeting.
“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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