Five goals in three Bundesliga games in October – also thanks to this impressive goals tally, Lucas Alario has been nominated for the October Player of the Month. The following players have been nominated in addition to the Argentinian: Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller (both FC Bayern), Matheus Cunha (Hertha Berlin), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) and Angelino (RB Leipzig).
The official award is presented each month by the DFL in cooperation with EA SPORTS, it is awarded according to a two-stage process where both the individual performance data of the players and the opinions of pundits and fans are considered. You can vote for Alario HERE!
The current international break and associated weekend without training or matches comes at just the right time for Daley Sinkgraven. The girlfriend of the Dutch defender has given birth to a son called Dyce. The left-back shortly after the birth: “We are very proud. The nights are rather short at the moment – but that’s obviously wonderful.” Daley and his partner are continuing the baby boom at Bayer 04. Moussa Diaby, Leon Bailey, Patrik Schick, goalkeeping coach David Thiel and, for the second time, Kerem Demirbay plus former Leverkusen player Kevin Volland have all recently become fathers.
The Germany coach appears to like Black and Red: Since taking the job in 2006, Jogi Löw has called up 16 players who were at the Werkself when they made their debut for Germany. The most recent member of this group is Nadiem Amiri who played on Wednesday night in the 1-0 win in the friendly against the Czech Republic. The 24-year-old started his international career in the 2-2 draw in a friendly against Argentina on 9 October. Löw first picked Leverkusen players in the spring of 2007 – and three in one go. The coach from the Black Forest called up a Werkself trio of Simon Rolfes, Stefan Kießling and Gonzalo Castro. All three Leverkusen players made their debuts for Germany in a friendly against Denmark on 28 March of that year.
These players have made their debut for Germany while under the Bayer Cross (in chronological order): Simon Rolfes, Stefan Kießling, Gonzalo Castro, René Adler, Toni Kroos, Stefan Reinartz, Lars Bender, Sidney Sam, Philipp Wollscheid, Karim Bellarabi, Jonathan Tah, Bernd Leno, Julian Brandt, Benjamin Henrichs, Kai Havertz and Nadiem Amiri.
On Thursday night, 12 November, Lennart Grill starts the final international break of the year: The Leverkusen player is with the Germany U21s for the game against Slovenia in Braunschweig (kick-off: 18.15 CET). ProSieben MAXX are broadcasting the Euro U21 qualifier live on free TV.
Florian Wirtz has also been called up for the U21s by coach Stefan Kuntz but will not play against Slovenia. The 17-year-old “will not be overworked by agreement between Stefan Kuntz and Peter Bosz and is therefore not in the squad,” the DFB announced.
Moussa Diaby is also playing in the Euro qualifiers on Thursday with the 21-year-old in the France team away to Liechtenstein (kick-off: 20.45 CET). Also in action this evening: Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso. The central defender and his teammates play Malawi in an Africa Cup qualifier with the kick-off at 19.00 CET.
The Bayer 04 women’s team secured a win in the friendly during the international break. Without a total of eight international players, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team defeated Bundesliga 2 side Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1 at the Kurtekotten Training Centre, thanks to goals from Lobke Loonen (1’, penalty), Caroline Kehrer (41') and Valentina Mädl (66').
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Bayer 04 will have to manage without striker Christian Kofane in the coming weeks. The 20-year-old sustained a muscle injury to his left thigh on international duty with the Cameroon national team during the recent international break. This will prevent him from playing in the upcoming Werkself matches.
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FSV Mainz 05 went into the international break on the back of an away win at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Currently sixth in the table, the Rheinhessen side – who have been impressive on the road – now aim to continue their good start to the Bundesliga campaign at home when they face the Werkself on Saturday, 10 October (kick-off: 15:30 CEST). In terms of squad selection, Urs Fischer once again has more options at his disposal. Up front, the Mainz coach is likely to continue relying on what is currently the league’s most successful strike partnership. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Exciting experiences and exclusive insights into the Werkself and the BayArena awaited the young footballers from the BA04 Football Academy Guangzhou in China during their visit to the Rhineland this week. As well as taking part in a joint training session with the Bayer 04 Football Academy, the youngsters marvelled at the Bundesliga club’s stadium during a guided tour. The highlight of the visit was a private press conference with former Bayer 04 striker Stefan Kießling, during which he shared tips from his own career with the young players. On Saturday afternoon, 10 October, the group will round off their visit by supporting the Werkself in the away match in Mainz.
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Fans ask, Carolin Simon answers: As part of Bayer 04’s second Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, the Leverkusen captain took questions from the community. The full-back, who returned to the club this summer after ten years away, set aside an hour and a half for the Q&A session with fans, offering a very personal insight into, amongst other things, her daily life as a footballer and her role as captain, as well as her passion for Pokémon.
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