Before the Swiss coach fielded questions on the training ground, he fulfilled another function on the pitch. Seoane had a whistle round his neck as the took the role of referee. He intervened – albeit rarely – in the event of unfair challenges and clear offsides.
The 43-year-old coach again welcomed the U19 players Sadik Fofana and Ayman Aourir plus the brothers Noah and Leon Pesch at the start of the week.
Missing players included Edmond Tapsoba and Odilon Kossounou, who are at the Africa Cup of Nations, plus the injured Julian Baumgartlinger and Charles Aránguiz. Timothy Fosu-Mensah was also absent but the Dutchman could return to training during the week according to Seoane. A return to full training is also possible for Amine Adli with the Frenchman completing an individual session on the pitch on Monday.
There was good news about Piero Hincapie: The 19-year-old defender had been left stranded in his home country of Ecuador following a positive Covid-19 test but he has now tested negative and thereby fulfilled the requirements for the return journey to Germany. "We’re happy that Piero can now return and that we have one more player available," said Seoane. "I hope he will be able to have two or three days work with the ball before Saturday's game."
At the moment, it appears likely that the Ecuador international will be in the squad for the Werkself opening match in 2021 against Union Berlin. The game between the teams in fourth and seventh place at the BayArena kicks off at 15.30 CET on Saturday, 8 January.
Edmond Tapsoba and Odilon Kossounou are in the last few days before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations. While Kossounou has been exclusively involved in training sessions with the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso with defender Tapsoba played a friendly against Gabon on Sunday. The warm-up match against the team including Arsenal striker Pierre Emerik Aubameyang, with the Leverkusen player in the Burkina Faso starting line-up, ended with a 3-0 victory.
Tapsoba and Co. are in the opening match of the African tournament against Cameroon on 9 January; the Ivory Coast with Kossounou start three days later against Equatorial Guinea.
Be part of the family, everyone is welcome in Germany's top flight: The German Football League (DFL) are using this motto to get fans in the mood for the start of the second half of the Bundesliga season. Matchday 18 begins on Friday, 7 January with the game between Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach. Click HERE for the Tweet.
After the opening match in January against Union Berlin, the Werkself play Borussia Mönchengladbach (15 January) and FC Augsburg (22 January) before the weekend off at the end of the month.
Having worked as Bayern Munich's video analyst under coach Pep Guardiola, Lars Kornetka joined the Werkself in the summer of 2014 as analyst assistant coach. He spent four years under the Bayer Cross working in that role with the longest time under head coach Roger Schmidt (125 games). After that he moved on to RB Leipzig and PSV Eindhoven and a few months ago joined Lokomotiv Moscow. Kornetka is now working there as the sporting and communications director. Bayer 04 wish the former Leverkusen man many happy returns on his 44th birthday in the Russian capital.
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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