The Black and Reds started the official run-in to the 2024/25 season on Sunday 14 July with performance checks. At the start of the week, Xabi Alonso led the first training session in warm weather with half of his squad – including new signings Aleix Garcia, Jeanuël Belocian and Andrea Natali.
Players not available were the European champion Alejandro Grimaldo and Copa América winner Exequiel Palacios plus the others involved in the European Championship and Copa América finals. These Werkself players are currently enjoying a well-deserved holiday after involvement in those tournaments. Alonso extended the training group by including several youth players including Francis Onyeka, Ken Izekor, Kerim Alajbegovic.
In a 90-minute session, Alonso demanded high intensity and maximum concentration. A warm-up routine and stretching were followed by reaction drills. Then came a pass and moving game – first in restricted space then on half the pitch. Alonso ended the first training session with a practice match.
Sporting managing director Simon Rolfes shared his views at the first training session ahead of the 2024/25 campaign: "I'm really looking forward to getting going again. Last season was wonderful without a doubt. But a new season always brings a new attraction. We will have new challenges and new opportunities. We have a good team and obviously want to be part of the top group in the Bundesliga.
On European champion Grimaldo and Copa América winner Palacios, Rolfes said: "I'm really happy with the wins for Alejandro and Exequiel. I've sent a short message to both of them after they won their individual titles. I'm very happy that we now have a European champion, a Copa América and World Cup winner at Bayer 04 and in the also an AFCON winner in Odi (Odilon Kossounou, ed.). That's a great development."
A highlight for the Bayer 04 fans came after the rigorous first training session: Selfies and group photos with the players as well as autographs on shirts, shorts and more. A group of children spontaneously sang a birthday greeting to Jonas Hofmann who was 32 on Sunday.
Hofmann also shared his views on the start of the pre-season after the training session: "I've enjoyed the summer and was really able to switch off. On holiday a lot of people congratulated me for the success of last season. Moments like that made me realise what we have actually achieved. We now have a big challenge ahead of us and are able to see that it was a unique and exceptional season. It will be difficult to top that." Hofmann added with confidence: "The bar is set high. We want to make a good start to the season. We'll only have all the players together later on and in that short time we want to work on producing what made us so strong last season. You could see straightaway in the first training session that we have a good mindset."
This week's other training sessions are – with the exception of Saturday – also open to fans.
Please note: The team have another event straight after tomorrow's open training session. For this reason, the players will not be available for selfies and autographs after training tomorrow. We ask you to bear that in mind. From Wednesday, the team will again be happy to fulfil requests for photos and autographs as usual after training.
The first friendly of the pre-season is on Friday 26 July against Rot-Weiss Essen. Tickets went on open sale today at noon.
The first match at the BayArena is against Real Betis at the season launch on 10 August with the kick off at 15.30 CEST. Further information is available HERE.
An overview of the pre-season agenda is HERE.
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