
Kai Havertz and Jonathan Tah are back in the Germany squad. Talking at an online press conference, the Germany coach Joachim Löw announced his squad on Tuesday for Germany's Nations League games on 3 September (20.45 CET) against Spain in Stuttgart and on 6 September (20.45 CET) against Switzerland in Basel. The two internationals in September will be played behind closed doors.
The Austria Football Association announced their squad on Tuesday as well. Julian Baumgartlinger and Aleksandar Dragovic are included for the two forthcoming internationals against Norway (4 September) and Romania (7 September). Florian Wirtz was called up to the Germany U21 squad for the first time last week. The Germany youngsters play Moldova on 3 September and Belgium on 8 September. Wirtz will meet up with his new teammate Lennart Grill who signed for Bayer 04 from Kaiserslautern in the summer.
Tin Jedvaj and his Croatia teammates face two real clashes in the Nations League. That starts with the game against Portugal in Porto on 5 September and three days later there is the match in Paris against World Cup winners France (both kick-offs at 20.45 CET). Like Wirtz and Grill, Moussa Diaby with France and Panos Retsos with Greece are also set to play in European championship qualifiers with their U21 teams. Whether Lukas Hradecky and Joel Pohjanpalo play for Finland will become clear over the course of the week.
FIFA have relaxed the release obligations on clubs regarding international payers due to the coronavirus pandemic for the internationals in September (31 August to 8 September for the men and 14 to 22 September for the women). FIFA is reacting to the travel restrictions in Europe. Clubs are no longer obliged to release players under certain conditions – such as quarantine or self isolation measures of at least five days or complications arising through travel restrictions.
The streaming service DAZN and Amazon Prime will broadcast the Friday and Monday games in the forthcoming 2020/21 season plus five Sunday matches in the Bundesliga. The package also includes four play-off matches and the Supercup. The broadcasting rights were still unclear last season. Eurosport did buy the rights for another season but cancelled with the DFL due to the coronavirus pandemic. The DFL then reached agreement with DAZN. The rights are again with Eurosport for the coming season but they have been passed on via licences to the two streaming portals.
In our new YouTube format of "Ready, Steady, Go", Werkself players are given the beginning of sentences. Their job is then to complete the sentences. First up is Kevin Volland. As usual, fun and laughter are guaranteed. Click HERE for the video.

Despite a major personnel shake-up in the summer, RB Leipzig have performed impressively this term. Ahead of matchday 15, coach Ole Werner's team are second in the Bundesliga with a three-point lead over their upcoming opponents Bayer 04. This Saturday, 20 December (kick-off: 18:30 CET), the Werkself are away to RBL who are strong at home. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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The German Football League (DFL) has scheduled matchdays 20 to 24 in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The dates at a glance.
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This year - for the third time - the parents of the Bayer 04 youth players from the U8 to U15 age groups once again took part in the WDR Christmas Miracle. Under the motto "Goals against hunger in the world - parents in goal!", they organised their own fundraising campaign to once again actively support the important WDR campaign. The sum of €3,420 was handed over at the Glashaus in Essen in the middle of the week during the live programme.
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On Tuesday evening, Bayer 04's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer and its employees welcomed some very special visitors to the company's Christmas market at its headquarters in Wuppertal: Werkself players Robert Andrich, Mark Flekken, Loïc Badé, Jarell Quansah and Malik Tillman spent lots of time with Bayer 04 fans of all ages in the early evening – and also helped to serve drinks such as Glühwein (mulled wine) and delicious food.
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The Leverkusen eSports players picked up just one point on Tuesday 16 December in the remaining three matches of the online preliminary round of Showdown Three in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. As a result, the #B04eSports team once again miss out on going through to the offline knockout phase and now head into the winter break.
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