
The Lower Rhine company DERBYSTAR this morning presented the official match ball for the next Bundesliga campaign. As with this season, two striking colours dominate – next term it is dark blue and orange. The material of the new Bundesliga Brillant APS is identical to its predecessor.

DERBYSTAR has provided the Bundesliga official match ball since 2018/19 and recently agreed a contract extension with the DFL to 2026.
Before the new season in Germany’s top flight kicks off, this summer sees the European Championships played across the continent. As confirmed by the German Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday, Germany coach Joachim Löw will announce his preliminary squad for the tournament on 19 May. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 61-year-old will be able to take 26 players to the Euros this year – three more than usual. Löw will reveal his final squad on 1 June with the opening match being played on 11 June. The first game for Germany is four days later against the World Cup winners France. The other group opponents are Portugal (19 June) and Hungary (23 June).
The long-time Werkself player Michael Ballack (1999 to 2002 and 2010 to 2012) will be the TV pundit on MagentaSport for the European Championships in the summer. The former midfield maestro can call on his expertise gained from 267 Bundesliga appearances plus 98 international caps.

The Telekom sports broadcaster will show all the Euro games live, including ten exclusively. There will be up to ten hours of coverage every day.
And last but not least, we have a Black and Red TV tip for you: Bayer 04 will show all the highlights of the Werkself Bundesliga matches on the club’s YouTube channel free of charge. Click HERE for action from the game at Werder Bremen (0-0).

Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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