It was the big shock in the week of the cup final: Paulinho injured the cruciate in his right knee in training on Tuesday, 2 July. The outcome: several months on the sidelines. Paulinho's teammates sent a video get-well message from the BayArena to Innsbruck where the 19-year-old underwent a successful operation. The winger has been back in Leverkusen since Tuesday and has today started his rehab programme at the Werkstatt facility.
This incident is now part of German football folklore: In the 85th minute of the 1990 World Cup final against Argentina, Andreas Brehme stepped up to take a penalty with the score at 0-0. Today is the 30th anniversary of the final. Sport-Bild took this opportunity to invite Franz Beckenbauer, Lothar Matthäus and goalscorer Brehme to an interview. And the latter spoke about the seconds before the penalty, which he hit into the same corner of the net as he did against England in the semi-final.
The now 59-year-old was asked whether that was taking a risk. "The biggest risk was Rudi Völler coming up to me before I took the kick and saying: 'Andi, if you score, we'll win the World Cup.' I just thought: Thanks a lot for making that clear," answered Brehme, who famously refused to be put off by the words of wisdom from today's Leverkusen sporting managing director. And so Völler, Brehme and Co. ended up celebrating winning the World Cup. Bayer 04 congratulate Rudi Völler and Co. on this anniversary.
The football portal transfermarkt.de has issued the first market value update in a top league since the coronavirus pandemic and adjusted numerous market values in the Bundesliga. This includes Bayer 04 youngster Florian Wirtz having his initial value rated at €10 million. The 17-year-old is thereby the third most valuable player born in 2003 worldwide. And the Werkself players Moussa Diaby (+5 to €32 million) and Edmond Tapsoba (+4 to €22 million) have increased in value.
The former Leverkusen player Heung-Min Son presented himself with a present two days before his birthday with Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs gained valuable points in the race for a Europa League spot with a 1-0 win against Everton on Monday night. The South Korea international, who played for Bayer 04 from 2013 to 2015, is 28 today (Wednesday).
Diaby celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday. The Frenchman joined the Werkself on Paris St Germain in the summer and he has scored five goals and provided five assists in 28 Bundesliga appearances. Bayer 04 wish the two wingers many happy returns (belatedly)!
Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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After a break of almost two weeks, the Bayer 04 Women begin preparing for games in 2026 on Sunday. Bayer04.de provides an overview of the dates at the start of the second half of the season.
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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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