After the matches against Nigeria (1-0) and Mexico (0-0), Piero Hincapie and Ecuador remained unbeaten in the third and final friendly against Cape Verde in Fort Lauderdale with a 1-0 win on Saturday 11 June. The goalscorer for La Tri was Jordy Caicedo (38'). The Werkself number 33 played the full 90 minutes.
Odilon Kossounou played his second and last match in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers for the Ivory Coast on Thursday 9 June. The game against Lesotho ended in a goalless draw. The Black and Red defender was in the starting line-up and came off at half-time. The Ivorians are currently top of the table after the draw and the previous 3-1 win against Zambia. The next match in the AFCON qualifiers is against Comoros in September.
Mitchel Bakker also has a spotless record with the Netherlands U21 side in the European Championship qualifiers. In the match against Wales on Saturday, Bakker & Co won 1-0 with a late goal from Lutsharel Geertruida (86’). Bakker played the full 90 minutes. The ‘JongOranje’ secured convincing wins in the previous matches against Moldova (3-0) and Gibraltar (6-0) and were already qualified for the U21 Euros top of the group (26 points) ahead of the final game.
After two draws against Italy and England, Germany again ended all square in the UEFA Nation's League. The match in Budapest against Hungary on Saturday evening ended with a 1-1 scoreline with Jonas Hofmann scoring on nine minutes. Werkself defender Jonathan Tah was an unused sub. The Flick team are currently third with three points in Group A3 behind Italy (five points) and Hungary (four points).
Moussa Diaby and France drew 1-1 with Austria in the UEFA Nations League. Kylian Mbappé put the Équipe de France level on 63 minutes. Diaby started and completed the game. Austria are in second place and France are in fourth with two points from three games. The leaders in Group 1 are Denmark in spite of their latest 1-0 defeat against Croatia.
Werkself captain Lukas Hradecky was on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline on Saturday in Finland's game against Romania in the UEFA Nations League. The Leverkusen keeper was not in goal and instead watched the game from the bench. The Scandinavian side are second in Group B3 after three matchdays four points behind Bosnia-Herzegovina.
REMAINING INTERNATIONAL FIXTURES:
Jonathan Tah – Germany
14 June, 20.45 CEST: Germany vs Italy (UEFA Nations League)
Lukas Hradecky – Finland
14 June, 20.45 CEST: Bosnia-Herzegovina vs Finland (UEFA Nations League)
Moussa Diaby – France
13 June, 20.45 CEST: France vs Croatia (UEFA Nations League)
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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