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.
The next friendly for Bayer 04: A week after the 2-0 win in Bochum, the Werkself are away to top-flight Dutch side Fortuna Sittard today, Friday 1 August (kick-off: 19:00 CEST). The latest information on the match at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion close to the German border is here in today's match news.
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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 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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The Werkself entertain Italian club Pisa FC, newly promoted to Serie A, at the official season opener at the BayArena on Tuesday, 5 August (kick-off: 18:00 CEST). Bayer 04 fans can look forward to a varied programme of events and exciting promotions. Tickets for the season opener are on open sale with over 18,000 tickets sold so far. Read on for the latest information.
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An experienced addition to the Bayer 04 U19 coaching staff: Former Werkself player Hüzeyfe Doğan starts as assistant coach to Sergi Runge on 1 August.
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