Ahead of the first training session in the morning, the second half of the Werkself squad were happily in front of the cameras for Media Day 2022. As in the day before, today's activities again included photo, give and video productions for the club social media channels. The goalkeeping trio of captain Lukas Hradecky, Andrey Lunev and Niklas Lomb covered five media shoots from eight in the morning.
The whole squad then headed for the training ground. The Seoane team competed in different small group matches. And defender Jonathan Tah was back on the pitch at the BayArena with the ball at his feet for the first time after the summer break as he completed large parts of full training.
There was more good news away from the pitch: Amine Adli completed an individual session with fitness coach Daniel Jouvin as he worked on making his comeback.
Once again, there were lots of Black and Red fans at the training ground to follow the Werkself session from close quarters. Afterwards, the players took time out for young and old alike for photos and autographs – the most popular photo motif of the day: Captain Lukas Hradecky and head coach Gerardo Seoane.
During the lunch break, it was time for Jonathan Tah, Robert Andrich, Odilon Kossounou, Paulinho and Mitchel Bakker to produce their best smiles in front of the cameras. One or two players had fun with their teammates – the behind-the-scenes insights are already on the club's social media channels.
The Werkself had a second session in the afternoon inside the BayArena. The focus was on stability and movement drills.
At the end of the day, the final group consisting of Jeremie Frimpong, Exequiel Palacios, Piero Hincapie and Timothy Fosu-Mensah completed the different photo stops before departing for a well-deserved evening off.
The Werkself will start the last session on the pitches next to the BayArena at 10.30 CET tomorrow Wednesday 13 July. This session is also open to Black and Red supporters. The Leverkusen squad then head off to Austria the day after for a week-long training camp in Zell am See-Kaprun.
Hans-Peter Lehnhoff is 59 today. The midfielder joined the Werkself at the age of 31 in 1994. Up to the end of his playing career in 1999, he made 177 appearances for the Black and Reds scoring 17 goals and providing 30 assists.
After hanging up his boots, the former Werkself player took up a role with the support team with the Werkself and became the first team liaison manager of a professional German side. The Alsdorf-born player has spent 28 of his 59 years under the Bayer Cross, which is almost half of his life – a true stalwart. Bayer 04 wish him many happy returns.
Bosnia U19 international Kerim Alajbegovic is moving from Bayer 04 Leverkusen's youth set-up to Red Bull Salzburg. The talented attacking midfielder has signed a long-term contract with the Austrian club. At the same time, the works club secured a buy-back option for the 17-year-old, who was one of the mainstays of the Leverkusen U19s.
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