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.
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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