The Germany U21 coach Stefan Kuntz announced his squad for the Euro group stage at the start of the week. The 58-year-old called up another Leverkusen player in addition to goalkeeper Lennart Grill (see report HERE). In the list of offensive players called up there is one Black and Red player missing who was on the pitch for all the recent Germany U21 games: Florian Wirtz.
Following the announcement by Kuntz, the Germany coach Joachim Löw revealed that the 17-year-old Werkself player is intended to join the senior team during the coming international break. "I think you can now say we are planning on both of them joining us," said Löw in an interview with RTL/ntv regarding Wirtz and Bayern Munich's Jamal Musiala (18). Looking forward to the Euros in the summer, it is "good that I can see how they perform in our group for a couple of days and that is perhaps a good indicator in terms of the tournament," said Löw about the two youngsters.
In the next international break at the end of the march, Germany play their World Cup qualifiers against Iceland (25 March/Duisburg), Romania (28 March/Bucharest) and North Macedonia (31 March/Duisburg). Löw will announce the final squad for the three matches on Friday 19 March.
In a good mood and keen to play, Werkself player Paulinho returned to the training ground at the BayArena on Tuesday. The 20-year-old Brazilian took part in sections of full training for the first time since his torn cruciate at the start of July last year. The offensive player is set to increase his workload in the coming days and weeks.
Paulinho was signed from the top-flight Brazilian club Vasco da Gama in the summer of 2018. The midfielder made 19 appearances for the Werkself in 2019/20, scoring three goals and providing two assists along the way.
Professional football has been subjected to a large number of changes since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. In the current edition of SPORT BILD of 17 March, Dr. Karl-Heinrich Dittmar, medical director and pandemics officer at Bayer 04, discusses the effects of the pandemic on his day-to-day work and the Werkself. In the interview, the 58-year-old provides insights into the coronavirus testing for the Werkself players, contact with 17 health authorities as well as medical checks via video.
Clash with the former club: Hertha Berlin entertain the Werkself at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday 21 March (kick-off: 15.30 CET). A former Leverkusen player will be in the dugout for the host team: Andreas Neuendorf has been working as an assistant to Hertha head coach Pal Dardai since the end of January.
Neuendorf spent part of his career as a professional footballer at Leverkusen. The Berlin-born player joined Bayer 04 from Reinickendorfer Füchse in 1994. In the following three and a half years, the midfielder made 49 Bundesliga appearances for the Werkself. He gained his nickname 'Zecke' (tick) during his time at Leverkusen, which Bayer 04 legend Ulf Kirsten gave him at a training camp due to a tick bite.
After two and a half years as a player with Hertha, Neuendorf returned to Leverkusen for the 2000/01 season before again playing for the Old Lady. In addition to his job as assistant coach to Dardai, he is also on a DFB coaches course.
Admir Mehmedi can look back at an extremely successful season with VfL Wolfsburg to date: The Swiss international and his teammates are in third place after 25 games. Before his time at Wolfsburg the versatile offensive player was at Bayer 04.
Mehmedi joined Leverkusen from Freiburg in the summer of 2015. He went on to play for the Werkself for two and a half years making 62 Bundesliga appearances. The champion of Switzerland from 2009 was 30 on Tuesday: A belated happy birthday.
Who remembers it? Exactly 20 years ago – on 17 March 2001 – the Werkself were away to Borussia Dortmund. On seven minutes, Bernd Schneider received the ball in the centre circle – and he volleyed it over the head of the BVB keeper Jens Lehmann into the back of the Dortmund net. 'Schnix' not only launched a deserved 3-1 win with his opener but he also scored the Goal of the Month for March 2001. HERE is a video of his strike.
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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