Zé Roberto visited the club a few weeks ago. He watched the training session, talked with Arthur and head coach Xabi Alonso and said hello to many employees he knows from his time at Bayer 04.
The midfielder made his debut for the Werkself in the summer of 1998. Four years later he left the club after 113 Bundesliga matches (18 goals), three runners-up finishes and one UEFA Champions League final. He went on to win four Bundesliga titles and four DFB Cups with Bayern Munich. He was named in the FIFA All-Star Team in the 2006 World Cup in Germany even though Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Bayer 04 fans included José Roberto da Silva Júnior, his real name, in their dream team to mark 40 years of the club being in the Bundesliga.
Zé Roberto finished his playing career at Palmeiras at the age of 43 in November 2017. He had led the team to one championship title and one cup triumph. And the Brazilian is still active now at the age of 50, including in the Baller League. He also offers online training programmes as a fitness influencer and has 2.8 million followers on Instagram.
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 personalised 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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Ticket sales for another Bayer 04 Women's home game have begun. Fans can now purchase tickets for the match against SGS Essen at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on Saturday, 22 November. The latest information at a glance.
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It took 120 minutes, but once again Bayer 04 produced a late goal to win their DFB Pokal second-round tie away at Paderborn on Wednesday. “Same as always” was the line in Bild in homage to the 2023/24 double-winning season. With Jeanuel Belocian making his first start in over a year and Ibrahim Maza netting his first Werkself goal to secure a place in the last 16, Jonas Hofmann is eager to “take the positive feeling” into the next round.
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A DFB Pokal thriller that had it all - including a positive outcome from a Bayer 04 perspective. After a goalless and uneventful first half, the second round tie at SC Paderborn 07 really took off: Following a red card for the second division side, Grimaldo scored to give Bayer 04 a 1-0 lead but Paderborn levelled before the end of normal time. The home side then turned the game round at 2-1 in extra time, before Quansah, Maza and Garcia scored for the Werkself to make it 4-2 to seal a place in the Round of 16.
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