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!
Werkself TV shows the highlights of the 4-0 victory in the friendly match against KRC Genk...
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In their third friendly of this pre-season, Bayer 04 played on home soil for the first time – and won there too! The Werkself claimed a comfortable 4-0 victory against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. Jeanuel Belocian (9’) and Nathan Tella (42’) gave a dominant Leverkusen a 2-0 lead at the break, which Afonso Moreira (51’) and Christian Kofane (53’) doubled after the break. Among the many second-half substitutions was Patrik Schick, who made his first friendly appearance of the summer.
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The Werkself continue their 2026/27 pre-season preparations with their third friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion on Wednesday 29 July (kick-off 15:00 CEST). Werkself-TV is broadcasting the match live and in full in a stream from 14:50 CEST...
After the children from the Bayer 04 Football Academy grilled Janis Blaswich and Simeon Rapsch last week, another group of 20 young Werkself fans gathered at the BayArena press conference room on Tuesday afternoon, 28 July . This time, the kids directed their questions at Tim Oermann and Jonah Berghoff. Defender Oermann raved about his school days, whilst talented midfielder Berghoff revealed to the young footballers, amongst other things, who his favourite player is – and he is also at Bayer 04. To round things off, the pair naturally obliged with all requests for autographs and selfies.
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Bayer 04 are back on the pitch. Following the first training sessions, the Werkself play the first pre-season friendly on Saturday, July 18. The match against Oberliga club Sportfreunde Baumberg kicks off at 15:30 CEST in Monheim am Rhein. Fans unable to attend the match can watch head coach Carles Martínez’s first game in charge for free via a livestream at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app, as well as on Werkself.tv (exclusively for members). Just log on and watch the games live. All the other Werkself preseason friendlies leading up to the 2026/27 season will also be streamed live for free.
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