Head coach Gerardo Seoane was able to welcome Odilon Kossounou back to the squad on Tuesday. The central defender headed home before the turn of the year to take part in the Africa Couple Nations with Ivory Coast. The tournament ended for the Ivorians last week with a 1-0 defeat against Egypt in the Round of 16. That means Kossounou is available for the match against BVB.
Paulinho has also returned to full training in the shadow of the BayArena. The Brazilian forward was sidelined after testing positive for Covid-19 and he is now being gradually brought back up to speed.
Julian Baumgartlinger (after knee injury) and Daley Sinkgraven (after muscle injury) were involved with some of the team training on Tuesday while Exequiel Palacios continues to be sidelined due to back problems. .
A few days before the start of the second half of the season in the FLYERALARM Women's Bundesliga, the coaches and captains of the twelve clubs have voted for their four best players in six different categories. In the most improved category, there was a player from the Bayer 04 squad in Verena Wieder. The 21-year-old was in third place in the rankings, with 18.2% of all the votes, which she shared with Maximiliane Rall (Bayern Munich). Wieder joined Leverkusen from SC Freiburg in the summer of 2020 and last season scored four league goals for the Black and Reds. Carry on, Verena.
With the exception of Wendell (250 games), no other Brazilian player has made more appearances for Bayer 04: Juan, signed from flamingo Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2002, played 176 times for the Black and Reds (16 goals). After five years he moved on to AS Roma before returning to Brazil in 2019 where he ended his playing career. Juan today celebrates his 43rd birthday – many happy returns.
Bayer 04 congratulates Sebastian Boenisch on his 35th birthday. The Polish left-back joined the Werkself in November 2012 and he went on to play 76 times (3 goals, 12 assists) for Bayer 04 in four years. After joining other clubs, mainly in Austria, Boenisch ended his playing career in the summer of 2020. Many happy returns and the best of health for the year ahead too.
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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After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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After a break of almost two weeks, the Bayer 04 Women begin preparing for games in 2026 on Sunday. Bayer04.de provides an overview of the dates at the start of the second half of the season.
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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 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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