With the goalkeepers it is no surprise that Manuel Neuer leads the way this time round with the Kicker editorial staff ranking him as "world-class". He is followed by seven other keepers in the international class including Bernd Leno in a repeat of last year. The half-term report on the 24-year-old Werkself shot-stopper says: "The two mistakes against Hamburg and Leipzig were Bernd Leno's only faults and the Leverkusen keeper produced outstanding performances against Gladbach, Ingolstadt and against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League. He definitely had the quality and consistency for the international class."
Benjamin Henrichs is the shooting star of the Werkself, rising from almost nothing to full international status and has rightly earned his position in the up-and-coming category – just behind Bayern's David Alaba and ahead of stalwarts like Juan Bernat, Marcel Schmelzer and Rafinha. Benjamin Henrichs made his debut for Germany in November after a meteoric rise. At the end of the year he ran out of steam to some extent and his performances suffered. But he earned one of the top average marks of 2.4 after strong set of performances in the group stage of the Champions League."
For the Kicker, Jonathan Tah is the second best central defender in Germany after Mats Hummels. His assessment declares: "In a repeat of last season, the Leverkusen player has proved to be very consistent – with all his well-known qualities: physically strong, quick, and anything but immobile in spite of his stature." With Ömer Toprak the journal reports: "His average mark in the league (3.55) was not enough to make the rankings. However, his impressive performances in the Champions League have raised him up to the prospects category.
Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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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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With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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The ‘year after’ the most successful year in the club's history brought many changes at Bayer 04. In an exclusive double interview with bayer04.de shortly before the Christmas break, Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes spoke about building a new team capable of winning trophies, the work of coach Kasper Hjulmand, the young new signings who have quickly developed into key players, and their personal plans for the Christmas holidays. Their outlook for the coming year also shows that the potential is far from exhausted and ambitions remain high.
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Last-minute ecstasy, huge disappointment and a historic performance on the European stage - 2025 was a real emotional roller coaster, especially for the U19s. A rousing run in the knockout phase secured the team a place in the final of the German championships, where they lost by the narrowest of margins. Despite the departure of several key players, the young Werkself team quickly regained their usual strength and qualified for the knockout rounds in the UEFA Youth League for the first time at the end of the year. In 2025, youngsters Jeremiah Mensah and Montrell Culbreath made their debuts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. The other youth teams also contributed great performances and a number of trophies to the collective Black and Red success, while the successful Bayer 04 Future Kids project broke new ground. Read on for the 2025 review of the youth teams.
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