Moussa Diaby is on the verge of making his debut for France. Coach Didier Deschamps picked the 22-year-old for the first time on Thursday for the the international fixtures over the next two weeks. Diaby has previously played for the junior France teams from the U18s upwards.
Argentina have also announced their squad – and Exequiel Palacios has been called up again. Other national associations have caught up this afternoon: The Ivory Coast have called up Odilon Kossounou, Chile Charles Aránguiz and Greece Panos Retsos. Also on international duty is Emrehan Gedikli. The youngster is in the Germany U19 squad under coach Hannes Wolf for the first time.
The Bayer 04 top management are on the road a lot at the moment. CEO Fernando Carro flew to Istanbul on Wednesday to complete a packed programme of activities. The 57-year-old took part in a meeting of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee (CCC) on Thursday morning and the Board der European Club Association met after lunch. The ECA represents around 230 professional clubs in Europe. 24 board members of the organisation meet regularly. Carro was appointed to the board in July 2021.
The 57-year-old was at the UEFA event for the Champions League draw in the evening and on Friday afternoon it will be exciting from a Werkself perspective. Fernando Carro will be present at 13.00 CEST when the draw is held for the group stage of the Europa League. 32 teams are in the running including the Werkself and Eintracht Frankfurt with the draw broadcast on UEFA.com.
After sporting director Simon Rolfes was a guest on the Sport1 broadcast Doppelpass for the first Bundesliga matchday, Rudi Völler will represent the colours of Bayer 04 on TV on Sunday, 29 August. The sporting managing director is a guest on ‘Sky90’. Patrick Wasserziehr will welcome Völler plus Toni Schumacher and Sky pundit Lothar Matthäus. They will discuss the coming Bundesliga matchday, the start to the season and other current football issues. The programme starts at 11.30 CEST and will be broadcast on the pay TV channel Sky Bundesliga 1.
The floods in July not only affected Leverkusen and surrounding areas but also hit the Aachen area hard. The region where Kai Havertz was born and brought up. Our homegrown player, who wore the Bayer 04 shirt from 2010 to 2020, was very moved by the damage and suffering and he started a donation campaign for the flood victims in tandem with the Red Cross. Here is the site for purchasing football boots designed by Kai at auction.
From this season, the Europa League will be broadcast by the RTL media group. The games will either be shown on the free-to-air TV channels RTL or Nitro, or they will be on the subscription streaming portal TVNOW. The media company has set up a team hat to explain details of the competition and clubs involved. There will be two female TV presenters with a Bayer 04 connection. The broadcasts will be hosted by Laura Papendick, who gained her first media experience at Bayer 04 TV. In 2016 she joined Sky Sport News, then in 2019 Sport1, and since the summer the former competitive swimmer from Bergisch-Gladbach has worked for the RTL Group. She will be working with Anna Kraft. The TV journalist grew up in Leverkusen and is a Werkself fan. Black and Red women’s power for RTL and the Europa League.
The Bayer 04 Women are back in action at the weekend. And, thanks to new TV contracts, the FLYERALARM Women’s Bundesliga has a “new presence level.” “We definitely wanted a higher profile and we taken a big step forwards,”said Hannelore Ratzeburg, vice-president of the German Football Association (DFB). For the first time, all 132 games will be broadcast live on MagentaSport and one Saturday match will be a fixed part on the ARD Sportschau. One game per matchday will be continue to be shown live on Eurosport on free-to-air TV.
The Bayer 04 Women start on Sunday, 29 August with a 13.00 CEST kick-off against FC Carl Zeiss Jena and the first home game on the following weekend – Sunday, 5 September, 13.30 CEST – against SGS Essen will both be on MagentaSport. The home game on matchday 3 against Turbine Potsdam (10 September, 19.15 CEST) is on Eurosport.
Today sees Bayer 04 go head-to-head with their next direct rivals in the race for Champions League qualification (kick-off 15:30 CEST). Opponents Stuttgart are currently fifth in the table, level on points with the Werkself but one place below them due to a three-goal inferior goal difference. The Black and Reds' record at Bad Cannstatt tells a clearer story: they've not lost at VfB for over 16 years. One important factor in securing what would be three crucial points away from home is Leverkusen's strength on the counter-attack. Whilst Stuttgart are also extremely dangerous going forward, they will be without their captain. Today’s matchday news.
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Another showdown in the race for the Champions League places takes place in Swabia: on Saturday 9 May (kick-off 15:30 CEST), the Werkself visit VfB Stuttgart, who are only behind on goal difference. In his pre-match press conference, head coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about confidence, excitement and mentality.
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Reinforcement in attack: Bayer 04 Leverkusen have secured the transfer of striker Maja Sternad from Bundesliga rivals SV Werder Bremen. The 22-year-old has signed a contract until 30 June 2028.
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It's a thrilling situation: as the season draws to a close, Stuttgart and Bayer 04 are heading into the home stretch almost neck and neck. After 32 games, with 17 wins, seven draws and eight defeats each, both teams are on 58 points. Even in terms of goals scored, VfB and the Werkself are level on 66. The Black and Reds have conceded just three fewer goals (43) than their rivals (46), which is why they sit one place behind fourth-placed Leverkusen. This Saturday, 9 May (kick-off: 15.30 CEST), the two teams go head to head at the MHP Arena in Stuttgart. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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