Who will come out on top? Midfield dynamo Robert Andrich is involved in a very special duel today (Monday) – albeit not on real turf. The Werkself number eight is taking on supporters of the Black and Reds, who have previously applied through the club's social media channels, in the #B04eSports event ‘#BeatThePro’ in two FIFA clashes. And that's not all: eSports player Marc ‘marc_LDW23’ Landwehr is also challenging Leverkusen supporters in two matches.
It all kicks off at 17.00 CET on the Bayer 04 Twitch channel. Click here for the live stream.
A total of 15 players started the second week of training during international break on Monday afternoon fresh and recovered. It was straight into the action with a range of passing drills and small-scale matches. In addition to the Werkself players, Seoane welcomed youth players onto the pitch. Six U19 players made up the training group. That included Sadik Fofana, Noah Pesch, Aaron Tshimuanga, Felix Erken, Joshua Eze and Ingyom Jung.
Other particularly good news: Andrey Lunev was able to complete his first session with the team since his ankle injury.
The transfermarkt.de website has updated the market values of Bundesliga players during the international break. And the figures are interesting: Bayer 04 are top in terms of improvement of squad value. The Werkself leads the Bundesliga table with an increase of 4.1%, that is €17 million. The Black and Reds are followed by TSG Hoffenheim with an increase of €14 million putting them amongst the biggest winners in the league.
Also, Moussa Diaby was able to increase his market value by €10 million – the France international is currently worth €55 million. The Werkself now have an overall market value of €434.5 million.
Bayer 04 pay tribute to the longstanding sports journalist and ZDF head of sports Dieter Gruschwitz. Gruschwitz passed away on Sunday 27 March at the age of 68. Gruschwitz was born in Neuwied, Rhineland Palatinate and he started his TV career in 1979 with the Sender Freies Berlin broadcaster. He moved on to ZDF in April 1996 and in his role he covered the World Cup finals in France in 1998 and in South Korea and Japan in 2002. From 2004 he was the head of the sports editorial office.
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…
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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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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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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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