Born in Hamburg, Ernest Poku grew up in the Netherlands. Up to the age of 15, he played for the Amsterdam amateur clubs SV Robinhood and FC Amsterdam before the promising talent came to the attention of AZ Alkmaar who signed him as a youth player.
The 1.76 metre tall winger made his debut for the AZ second team in the second division in the spring of 2021. The then 17-year-old made his first appearance for the senior team in the Eredivisie at the start of the 2021/22 season. A few days later, Poku made his first appearance on the European stage in the Europa League play-offs.
In the following 2022/23 season, he impressively won the UEFA Youth League with Alkmaar including two goals in the 5-0 victory in the final against Hajduk Split. He scored a total of eight goals in the competition. The season after, he netted his first goal in the Eredivisie as a substitute in April 2024 and Poku finally made his breakthrough in the 2024/25 campaign.
Since the middle of October last year, he has started in nearly every game in the league, domestic cup and the UEFA Europa League. He has clocked up 42 appearances and eleven goal involvements across all competitions.
At the international level, Poku has played for the Netherlands in the U16, U18, U19 and U21 teams. In June of this year, he played for the Oranje junior side at the U21 European Championships in Slovakia. Poku and Co. progressed to the semi-finals where they went out to the holders and eventual winners England. The new Leverkusen player featured in nearly every game in the prestigious junior international tournament and he scored two goals including the winner in the 1-0 victory against Portugal in the quarter-finals.
This term, Poku has already played four games for Alkmaar, all from the start. In the three qualifiers in the UEFA Conference League, the winger scored one goal and provided one assist and he also set up a goal on matchday one in the Eredivisie. Poku is now looking forward to starting at Leverkusen on the back of this early top form: “It’s a big club, a Champions League club! I’m happy Bayer 04 have given me this chance.”
Having progressed to the DFB Pokal Round of 16, the Bayer 04 Women do not have much time before their next Bundesliga fixture. On Friday night (18:30 CEST), coach Roberto Pätzold’s side kick off matchday six at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium against Werder Bremen – and they have a clear mission.
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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 working 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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Bayer 04 host top French club Marseille at the BayArena on matchday four in the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League group stage. The match kicks off on Thursday 5 November at 21:00 CET. The latest information on ticket sales.
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During the international break, Bayer 04 will face third-division newcomers SC Fortuna Köln on Friday 2 October (kick-off: 11:00 CEST). The match will be played on training pitch 1 at the BayArena, as preparations are already underway at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium for the Bayer 04 women’s Bundesliga home match against Werder Bremen, which is due to kick off in the early evening. To ensure the friendly against Fortuna Köln runs smoothly and without disruption, it will be played behind closed doors.
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