At the end of last week, Andrey Lunev signed a two-year deal in Leverkusen. The 29-year-old goalkeeper was at Zenit St. Petersburg for the previous four and a half years and in that time he won the Russian league title three times and the domestic cup competition once.
Lunev’s excitement at the new chapter at Bayer 04 was clear to see during his first session on the training ground at the BayArena. With a little smile, the 1.93 metre shot-stopper stepped onto the turf with eleven teammates in the morning and the Russian trained with the players left in Leverkusen a couple of hours later in the afternoon. The reason for splitting the Werkself into two groups: There were further performance tests at the BayArena on Monday.
Florian Wirtz, Kerem Demirbay, Karim Bellarabi and Co. completed numerous one-on-one moves in an enclosed space in the morning and they also tested Lunev, Lennart Grill and Maximilian Neutgens between the sticks. 'Training group 1' ended the session by cooling off in a pool next to the pitch – the players in action in the afternoon completed a similar programme.
Offensive player Samed Onur will now play in the Turkish top-flight. The 18-year-old, who spent nine years in the youth section at Bayer 04, has signed a contract with Fatih Karagümrük. The Istanbul team ended last season in eighth place. Onur says about his time under the Bayer Cross: "Many thanks to Bayer 04 for almost ten great years at Leverkusen. In spite of a number of setbacks, I always enjoyed being on the pitch. I had a great grounding here, was able to make my debut for the first team and I gained lots of friends. My journey is now taking me elsewhere but I will always look back at this time with great pleasure and pride. Thank you." We wish you lots of success in Istanbul, Samed.
Cem Türkmen also moves abroad with immediate effect. The 19-year-old central midfielder signed a contract with the French top-flight newcomers Clermont Foot 63. "I grew up at Leverkusen, learned to play football here and made my first team debut. I will never forget that exciting time," declared Türkmen who played in a Werkself shirt for 13 years. In the new season, the midfielder will play for the Austrian second division club FC Austria Lustenau on loan. All the best to you too, Cem.
Hans-Peter Lehnhoff has long been a key personality at Bayer 04. The man for all seasons ended his playing career with the Werkself after five years in 1999 and since then he has worked on organisational matters relating to the Werkself. When time permits, he also plays for the Bayer 04 Veterans team. And he is also considered to be unbeatable at football tennis.
Lehnhoff celebrated his 58th birthday on Monday. And, as usual, he was at the BayArena on his birthday following the Werkself sessions on the training ground. We wish you the best of health – for many more years.
Two keepers, lots of questions: Werkself captain Lukas Hradecky and U19 goalkeeper Jesper Schlich visited the BarmeniaGothaer children’s press conference in partnership with the Bayer 04 Lions Club on Wednesday afternoon. The duo faced interesting and at times unusual questions from around 50 inquisitive young journalists in the press conference room at the BayArena.
Show moreA large number of sporting directors and officials from big clubs across Europe came to the BayArena on Tuesday for the second seminar in the UEFA Sporting Director Programme (SDP) in cooperation with the ECA.
Show moreFull-back Janou Levels will leave Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of the season. The 24-year-old has activated her release clause and she will join Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg. She has signed a three-year contract.
Show moreAfter returning from Hamburg and a day off on Easter Monday, the Werkself players were back on the training ground at the BayArena on Tuesday morning. Following the session, Amine Adli was very positive in a media interview about the remaining four matches including the forthcoming home game against FC Augsburg (Saturday, 26 April, 15:30 CEST): "We will give our all to end the season as well as we can!"
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