"Konstantinos Kotsifakis is a highly talented and already very successful young coach who will give our coaching team new impetus," said Jefta Bresser, Head of Academy at Bayer 04. "We are looking forward to an exciting collaboration with Kostas."
Over recent years, Kotsifakis has acted as both head coach and assistant coach in various youth teams at Hertha Berlin. The 29-year-old will take up his position in Leverkusen on 1 July 2026. In addition to his role as U19 co-coach, Kotsifakis will also be involved in the ongoing dialogue with the players of the Bayer 04 Future Team - top talents under contract in Leverkusen who play on loan at clubs in Germany and abroad to develop their skills at a high level.
In this context, Kotsifakis will work closely with young players like Artem Stepanov (FC Utrecht), Abdoulaye Faye (FC Lorient), Farid Alfa-Ruprecht and Francis Onyeka (both VfL Bochum) and closely follow and support their development at their current loan clubs.
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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