Our ‘golden boy’ is back! Four days after the win for Brazil in the Olympic final played in Yokohama, Paulinho was already back on the training ground at the BayArena. Ahead of the warm-up, he was congratulated on this very special title with a round of applause from his teammates. Visibly in a good mood and fall of zest for action, the 21-year-old winger completed his first session under the new Werkself head coach Gerardo Seoane.
Left-back Mitchel Bakker also returned to training on Tuesday. Following his thigh injury and individual sessions in the past few days, the new signing from Paris Saint-Germain took part in all the drills in the one-hour morning session.
The first training session of the day was followed in the afternoon by the monthly internal Media Day where the Werkself players run through various social media formats and small photo shoots. This time returnee Paulinho took a special role; the Olympic champion was photographed at the BayArena with his gold medal. In addition, new signing Odilon Kossounou faced the popular social media Q&A 'Black or Red?'..
As with the players in the second division two weeks ago, the players in Germany's top flight will also start the new season by supporting the DFL #ÄrmelHoch (sleeves up) campaign. The plan is for players to run onto the pitch with their teammates with their right sleeves rolled up. The idea is for the Bundesliga clubs to raise awareness of the significance of vaccinations in the battle against coronavirus.
The Werkself are away to FC Union Berlin at the start of the new season on Saturday, 14 August. The match at the Alte Försterei Stadium kicks off at 15.30 CEST.
Numerous greats of German football more come together at the Mosel STADIUM in Trier on Wednesday night to support the victims of the flooding disaster in the region. Under the motto 'Help after the flood: The benefit match of German football' the event will involve DFB All Stars, the Rhineland Palatinate Lotto team and the national team of mayors playing each other.
Former Werkself players involved with the teams are Jens Nowotny, Philipp Wollscheid, Lukas Sinkiewicz and Thomas Zdebel. SPORT1 will broadcast the game live from 20.30 CEST with the three matches lasting 35 minutes each.
Tickets for the match are available for €5, €10 and €15 from Ticket Regional. Tickets can be bought online from all the usual booking offices or via the hotline on 0651 9790 777. Donations can be made by the donation platform betterplace.org.
From the 2027/28 season, the Women’s Bundesliga will be organised by an independent league association. Following the unanimous decision taken at the DFB Bundestag (national conference) on Friday afternoon, the league’s separation from the DFB is now official.
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Following the Bundesliga clash against RB Leipzig (Sunday, 20 September, 15:30 CEST), some of the Werkself first team players will be heading off for the first international break of the season. Here is an overview of the Bayer 04 players called up for their national teams and all the details of their upcoming matches.
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A special visit to the BayArena: 222 members from volunteer fire brigades in Leverkusen, the Rheinisch-Bergisch district and the Oberbergisch district watched the Werkself’s 2–0 home win over Slovenian champions NK Celje live in the stadium. Bayer 04 had invited them to the 2026/27 Europa League opener as a thank-you for their tremendous dedication. They watched the match together in Block F4.
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The Werkself were feeling quite satisfied following their 2–0 home win in their opening match of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League, particularly with the result. At the same time, players and coaches agreed that, in terms of their performance, there was “still room for improvement”, as Robert Andrich put it. For his part, Moussa Diaby emphasised the importance of the victory with which the team had kicked off the campaign, and spoke personally about how good it felt to have started in front of the “wonderful” Bayer 04 fans this Tuesday evening for the first time since his return. The Werkself review of the Europa League opener.
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