Florian Wirtz had an impressive season in 2021/22 before his torn cruciate in the derby against FC Köln in March. The reporters at the sports magazine Sportbild have named 19-year-old as the player of the season at the Werkself. The attacking midfielder has “finally developed into a leader on the pitch.” The Bayer 04 number 27 has underlined that the impression with numbers: Wirtz has been directly involved in 17 goals in 24 league games. The Germany international scored seven goals and provided ten assists. The right-footer scored or set up a goal at an average of every 104 minutes.
Another Bundesliga player previously at Leverkusen also impressed the Sportbild editors. Goalkeeper Marcel Lotka was named as player of the season at Hertha Berlin. The 20-year-old spent three years under the Bayer Cross from 2017 before signing for the second team at Hertha in the summer of 2020. Lotka made eight appearances at the start of the season and then went on to make his Bundesliga debut against SC Freiburg on matchday 24. The Poland U21 international has since become first choice in goal and has only missed one league game. The Duisburg-born keeper suffered a broken nose and concussion in the game against Borussia Dortmund last Saturday (14 May). It remains to be seen whether he will be available for tomorrow’s Bundesliga play-off against Hamburg SV (19 May).
Florian Wirtz had an impressive season in 2021/22 before his torn cruciate in the derby against FC Köln in March. The reporters at the sports magazine Sportbild have named 19-year-old as the player of the season at the Werkself. The attacking midfielder has “finally developed into a leader on the pitch.” The Bayer 04 number 27 has underlined that the impression with numbers: Wirtz has been directly involved in 17 goals in 24 league games. The Germany international scored seven goals and provided ten assists. The right-footer scored or set up a goal at an average of every 104 minutes.
Another Bundesliga player previously at Leverkusen also impressed the Sportbild editors. Goalkeeper Marcel Lotka was named as player of the season at Hertha Berlin. The 20-year-old spent three years under the Bayer Cross from 2017 before signing for the second team at Hertha in the summer of 2020. Lotka made eight appearances at the start of the season and then went on to make his Bundesliga debut against SC Freiburg on matchday 24. The Poland U21 international has since become first choice in goal and has only missed one league game. The Duisburg-born keeper suffered a broken nose and concussion in the game against Borussia Dortmund last Saturday (14 May). It remains to be seen whether he will be available for tomorrow’s Bundesliga play-off against Hamburg SV (19 May).
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 are finally back. On Saturday 8 August, Bayer 04 kick off the 2026/27 campaign with their opening match. But there’s far more than just a double-header in store for Werkself supporters. True to the motto ‘One day. Two teams. One club’, the BayArena and the Ulrich Haberland Stadium will be transformed into a world of excitement.
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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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