The playing surface at the home ground of the Werkself has been named Pitch of the Year for the 2021/22 season by the DFL (German Football League). The award has been made since 2013/14 in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 for the outstanding quality of pitches. The winners are determined by marks from the team captains and referees on the condition of the pitch over the whole season as well as a range of measurements taken by an expert committee and testing by the stadium ground staff.
Bayer 04 receive the award for a second time. The first time for the Werkself was in the 2017/18 season. It's a title not only won by the pitch at the BayArena. The Ulrich Haberland Stadium and the Kurtekotten Performance Centre have twice been voted Pitch of the Year as home grounds for the Bayer 04 Women's team. Since the 2019/20 season, the German Football Association (DFB) has also made an award for the highest quality pitch in the Women's Bundesliga over the course of a whole season. Both the first award and the one for the 2020/21 season went to Leverkusen.
31 in total – that is the number of goals the Bayer 04 Women's team scored last season in the FLYERALARM Women's Bundesliga. From long-range shots into the top corner, through converted penalties and tap-ins from close range – they are all there. Milena Nikolic proved to be the most prolific scorer for the Black and Reds with a total of seven goals. A compilation of all the goals are available to watch again and enjoy HERE on the club's platforms.
The sports tribunal of the German Football Association (DFB) has imposed a fine in the sum of €6,250 on Bayer 04 in a single judge hearing following an indictment by the DFB control committee due to unsporting behaviour by their supporters. Immediately before kick-off in the Bundesliga match at Greuther Fürth (4-1), Leverkusen supporters let off at least five flares. That meant the kick-off was delayed by one and a half minutes.
Borussia Dortmund (€16,450) and Erzgebirge Aue (€9,200) were also fined due to flares being let off by their supporters.
The editors of the sports journal Kicker have published the rankings for the two remaining groups of positions for the first half of 2022. In the category of ‘Offensive wing players’, Werkself player Moussa Diaby finished second behind Eintracht Frankfurt’s Filip Kostic. The 22-year-old Frenchman stood out mainly with his impressive return of eight goals and seven assists in 17 matches in the Bundesliga Rückrunde and he was named in the ‘International class’.
Teammate Paulinho also made it into the rankings of the best attacking players on the wings and finished in seventh place. Ten starts, "good solutions in space", the ability to pick out teammates plus a match-winning brace against VfL Wolfsburg (2-0) put the Werkself number seven in the so-called ‘National class’
Amongst the strikers, Patrik Schick was third in the ‘International class’ behind Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski and Red Bull Leipzig's Christopher Nkunku. The reasoning: "Patrik Schick was not completely able to build on to his performances in the Hinrunde. That was primarily due to his injury on matchday 23 that meant he missed four games." Patrik scored eight goals in 13 Rückrunde games compared with 16 goals in 14 games in the Hinrunde.
At the summit of the Mexican league MX on Wednesday 8 June, an interview with Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 CEO, was broadcast in the context of the #Bayer04MexicoTour. The Werkself spent six days in the country in the middle of May as part of the celebrations for the centenary of Bayer AG in Mexico with a friendly against the top-flight side Deportivo Toluca plus a range of PR events. The aim of the tour was to promote and extend the strong and long-standing relationship with the country of Mexico, with its people and Bayer AG. The whole interview (in Spanish) is available HERE.
The former Werkself player Rudolf Wojtowicz today celebrates his 66th birthday – many happy returns. The defender joined Leverkusen for the 1982/83 season from the then top Polish club Szombierki Bytom. The former Poland international played 80 games for the Black and Reds in four seasons. Wojtowicz now works for VfL Wolfsburg as a scout.
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
Show more
With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
Show more
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
Show more
From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
Show more
Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
Show more
