The new Werkself head coach turned up for work punctually on 1 July. While the players only have to appear at the BayArena on Monday for their performance tests, Gerardo Seoane has been in Leverkusen since Thursday. In numerous discussions with sporting director Simon Rolfes and his coaching staff, the pre-season will be planned and work done on the squad for next season. In addition, the 42-year-old will get to know the rest of the staff supporting the Werkself and will hold important discussions over the coming weeks.
One player who Gerardo Seoane will not meet at the start of training is Leon Bailey. The 23-year-old is set to play for Jamaica in the Gold Cup, the North and Central American equivalent of the European Championship. The first match is on Tuesday, 13 July with the kick-off in Orlando (USA) at 00.30 CEST. The opening opponents for Bailey and Co. are Suriname, and Costa Rica are also in Group C. The fourth opponent will be resolved this weekend in two play-off rounds.
The Werkself winger has made eight appearances for Jamaica so far including at the 2019 Gold Cup where the ‘Reggae Boyz’ were knocked out by the USA at the semi-final stage.
Euro 2020 and the Copa America are entering their final stages. Three Leverkusen players are in action with their national teams. Centre-forward Patrik Schick is set to play in the Euro quarter-finals for the Czech Republic against Denmark on Saturday night, 3 July. The kick-off in Azerbaijan's capital Baku is at 18.00 CEST. Schick has been involved in all five goals scored in the tournament by the 'Reprezentace'. The 25-year-old has scored four goals himself and provided one assist.
In South America, the Werkself skipper Charles Aránguiz and Exequiel Palacios are involved in the first knockout clashes in this year's Copa America at the quarter-final stage. In the night from Friday to Saturday, Chile with the impressive Aránguiz face Brazil (kick-off: 02.00 CEST) and 25 hours later Palacios and Argentina take on Ecuador. Good luck to both of you.
Kerem Demirbay? Leon Köhl? Nadiem Amiri? Chiara Bücher? Or even Lars Bender? As usual, you again have the opportunity this year to vote for your Goal of the Season presented by like2drive. To enter, you have until Sunday, 4 July to name your favourite goal from last season under our Facebook post. You can take your time to look at all the goals once again. Click HERE for the video.
The Leverkusen Fan Project has served as a meeting place for all Leverkusen residents and Werkself fans since its foundation in 1996. This week the Fan Project celebrates its 25th birthday. On this occasion we thank everybody involved for the untiring and so valuable social contribution to our club and our city. Here's to many more years side-by-side.
World Cup winner Toni Kroos has announced his retirement from the German national team. The Real Madrid midfielder, who played on loan for the Werkself from January 2009 to June 2010, made the announcement on Friday. The 31-year-old made 106 appearances for Germany. At Leverkusen, Kroos played 48 games and he made his international debut in March 2010 during his time under the Bayer Cross.
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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