Following on from goalkeeper Andrey Lunev, signed from Zenit St Petersburg, Mitchel Bakker also had his first training session with the Werkself. Head coach Gerardo Seoane held a two-hour session on Tuesday morning. 20 outfield players and four keepers were able to enjoy fast-paced drills with the ball. In an 11 v 11 match, new signing Bakker was able to go up and down the left flank. His fellow countrymen Daley Sinkgraven trained on his own.
The Werkself have their first friendly on Wednesday, 14 July. Bayer 04, wearing the brand-new home kit, entertain third division SV Wehen Wiesbaden at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre. The kick-off is at 18.00 CEST and Bayer 04 will show the match live on the club's YouTube channel, Sport1 is also broadcasting friendly.
Bakker’s first day at work in Leverkusen involved several duties. The German Football League (DFL) Media Day was on the agenda a few days before the training camp in Zell am See/Kaprun (16-23 July). The players completed several photo and video opportunities in the west wing of the BayArena and on the training pitch 1.
Leon Bailey was not involved in Media Day. The Werkself winger is currently playing for Jamaica in the USA at the Gold Cup, the North and Central American equivalent of the European Championship. In the opening match, the favourites with the Bayer Bayer 04 player in their starting line-up overcame Suriname – final score: 2-0. Bailey played until the closing stages of the game.
The successful Jamaican team are in action again overnight from Friday to Saturday. The kick-off is at 00.30 CEST in the game against opponents Guadalupe in Orlando where the Werkself held three winter training camps between 2015 and 2017.
His input: impressive. His goals: wonderful and enormously important. The Werkself centre-forward Patrik Schick scored five goals in five games for the Czech Republic in the European Championship – only Cristiano Ronaldo did better than that with one more assist. The 25-year-old and his teammates surprisingly reached the quarter-finals. However, that was the end of the road for the Czech Republic but their striker justifiably secured a place in the best team of the tournament.
The ARD Sportschau named the Bayer 04 player in their 'EURO top 11'. ran and Sky also included the Leverkusen player in their Euro 2020 teams. Congratulations on a great tournament, Patrik!
Following the launch of the home kit (click HERE for the shirt) large numbers of our new merchandise have landed in virtual or physical shopping baskets. In addition to the Black and Red striped shirts, you can also secure the brand-new goalkeeper shirt. Hradecky and Co. will play in grass green in the 2020/21 season. You can enjoy browsing or buying the new goalkeeper kit at the Bayer 04 fan shop, at www.jako.de and at the Bayer 04 shop in Leverkusen-Wiesdorf (Wiesdorfer Platz 9).
Jester, cheerful soul and now an experienced Bundesliga player: Danny da Costa joined the youth section at Bayer 04 in the summer of 2001 from Winfriedia Mülheim. Nine years later he was in the final of the U17 Bundesliga but just missed out on winning the title. December 2010 brought the first team debut for da Costa – the right-back played in the second half of the Europa League home game against Atlético Madrid (1-1). He made twelve further appearances for the Werkself before moving on to FC Ingolstadt 04. Da Costa has now been at Eintracht Frankfurt for four years and he was recently on loan to FSV Mainz 05 for six months. The Bayer 04 home-grown player celebrates his 28th birthday today (Tuesday). Many happy returns, Danny!
With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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The ‘year after’ the most successful year in the club's history brought many changes at Bayer 04. In an exclusive double interview with bayer04.de shortly before the Christmas break, Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes spoke about building a new team capable of winning trophies, the work of coach Kasper Hjulmand, the young new signings who have quickly developed into key players, and their personal plans for the Christmas holidays. Their outlook for the coming year also shows that the potential is far from exhausted and ambitions remain high.
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Last-minute ecstasy, huge disappointment and a historic performance on the European stage - 2025 was a real emotional roller coaster, especially for the U19s. A rousing run in the knockout phase secured the team a place in the final of the German championships, where they lost by the narrowest of margins. Despite the departure of several key players, the young Werkself team quickly regained their usual strength and qualified for the knockout rounds in the UEFA Youth League for the first time at the end of the year. In 2025, youngsters Jeremiah Mensah and Montrell Culbreath made their debuts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. The other youth teams also contributed great performances and a number of trophies to the collective Black and Red success, while the successful Bayer 04 Future Kids project broke new ground. Read on for the 2025 review of the youth teams.
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Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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A memorable 12 months: 2025 was a year marked by success, intense competition and groundbreaking innovations for the #B04eSports team. After ending the 2024/25 season as runners-up, the Leverkusen-based console pros got down to business in a new, completely restructured season model, in which showdowns rather than divisions were the decisive factor on the road to the final round of the German Club Championship. Bayer 04 quickly earned a place in the history books of the most prestigious competition in German eSports and secured some valuable advantages for the coming year. Bayer04.de takes a look back at 12 months full of passion and the determination to take the next step.
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