Bigger, taller, more powerful: There has been a lot of noise at the home of the Werkself in recent days; a new scoreboard has been installed in the South Stand. And it has been visible in its full glory since the middle of the week. To enable all spectators to have a better view of the score, highlights, substitutions etc, the video wall is a level higher on the fourth tier.
Work has also started in the North Stand for the installation of a similarly-sized video wall above the heads of the fans. The new screens are 97 m² bigger than the previous ones from 2009 (68 m²) and also guarantee a much better image quality.
They are undisputed first choices at Real Madrid and true title collectors on top of that. On the penultimate matchday in the Primera Division, Toni Kroos, Dani Carvajal and Co. secured the 34th Spanish league title for the top European club with a 2-1 home win against Villarreal. Both former Werkself players were in the starting eleven.
Right back Carvajal (31 league appearances in 2019/20) made his breakthrough at Leverkusen during a one-year loan from Real Madrid's second team in 2012/13. Since then the Spaniard has made an impressive 278 appearances for Real. With just two appearances less for the Madrid team, midfield maestro Kroos – also during a loan spell – played for Bayer 04 from January 2009 to the summer of 2010 and moved on to Spain from FC Bayern in 2014. Bayer 04 congratulates the two former Werkself players on winning the league title!
The former Leverkusen player André Schürrle has announced the end of his career on Friday afternoon. "On behalf of me and my family, I want to say thank you to everybody who has been part of these phenomenal years. Your support made everything possible!," declared the 2014 World Cup winner on his Instagram channel. "I'm looking forward to new challenges and can hardly wait to start this new chapter," the 29-year-old played for the Black and Reds for two years from the summer of 2011 and he scored 18 goals and provided 13 assists for the Werkself in 65 Bundesliga games. Bayer 04 wish André Schürrle all the best for the future!
Will Bayer 04 head coach Bosz and his Bundesliga colleagues be able to make five substitutions in the 2020/21 campaign? The guardians of the rule book at IFAB have announced that they want to continue with five substitutions instead of three initially up to the summer of 2021 following the trial period during the coronavirus-affected season. Whether this rule will be introduced next season in the individual leagues will be decided by the relevant competition organisation in the particular country – for the Bundesliga that is the German Football League (DFL).
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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