The final days in the current season under the Bayer Cross are not just about the race for Europe. The impending retirement of Lars and Sven Bender has assumed great importance for management. staff and, above all, the fans of the Werkself. As part of the Wir sagen Danke! campaign, the club are working with Bayer 04 fans in organising numerous events and projects.
This includes redesigning the Mixed Zone, an area usually reserved for partner presentations. A banner with snapshots from the twelve years Lars Bender has spent at Bayer 04 now line the corridor to the home dressing room. It was designed and produces in co-operation with members of the fan umbrella organisation ‘Nordkurve12’. The message says it all: “Battle, ambition, passion – Thank you Lars.” Definitely additional motivation for all Werkself players for the forthcoming and last home game against FC Union Berlin (Saturday, 15 May, 15.30 CEST) with Lars Bender unfortunately unavailable due to injury.
The Bayer 04 shop in Bergisch Gladbach, currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, will not reopen. The club has decided to give up the shop on the high street. The Bayer 04 shops in Wiesdorf and at the BayArena will remain open.
Bayer 04 are supporting the cancer awareness campaign #touch organised by the BERGISCHE health insurance company. The Sponsors Club partner of the Werkself is focussing on breast cancer prevention. Nina Brüggemann, Juliane Wirtz, Kristin Kögel and Anna Wellmann are four players from the Leverkusen Bundesliga team involved as the face of the campaign for the BERGISCHE.
Germany are in the European Championships in the summer. Head coach Joachim Löw recently announced he would do without a Euros casting session at the training camp in Seefeld/Tyrol and select the 26 players permitted for the Euro finals. The 61-year-old will announce his squad next Wednesday, 19 May, at 12.30 CEST and the training camp in Austria will begin on 28 May. The DFB will have to name the final squad on 1 June.
The opening match in the European Championships is on 11 June. Germany play World Cup winners France four days later. The other group opponents are Portugal (19 June) and Hungary (23 June).
The Bundesliga is drawing to a close and the European Championships are around the corner – amateur matches have not been played for over six months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The German Football Association (DFB) and the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB) have organised a campaign and petition for the resumption of amateur sport.
Under the heading, ‘Draußen muss drin sein’ (Outside has to be in), the sports associations are advocating the fastest possible approval of organised training and practice sessions – leading to the resumption of fixtures. Everybody can give their backing to amateur sport.
Michael Rensing celebrates his 37th birthday this weekend. Born in Emsland, he signed for Bayern Munich at the age of 16 and he stayed at the club for ten years. The keeper then moved on to FC Köln and in 2012/13 to Bayer 04. Rensing was the back-up to Bernd Leno and he made four appearances – the Werkself won three of those matches. That was followed by seven years at Fortuna Düsseldorf and he retired from the game in 2020. Happy birthday, Michael Rensing.
It couldn't have been any tighter! Despite winning four of six games in the online preliminary round in Showdown 1 of the VBL Club Championship 2026/27, Leverkusen eSports duo Marc and Sean Landwehr didn't make it through to the offline knockout round. Level on points (12) with seven other teams, Leverkusen were the only team with this points tally not to progress as they had the worst single-game record compared to their rivals.
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Bayer 04 are away to Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb on Matchday 5 of the league phase of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League. The game kicks off on Thursday 26 November at 18:45 CET at the Maksimir Stadium. All the information on ticket sales.
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It wasn’t just on the pitch that there was cause for celebration around the Werkself’s 2–1 home win against SC Freiburg. Plenty of happy faces could be seen near the dugouts at half-time too. Once again, CEO Fernando Carro, alongside former striker and club ambassador Stefan Kießling, paid tribute to eight supporters’ clubs celebrating up to their 30th anniversary on behalf of Bayer 04.
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A disciplined and impressive team performance secured a 2–1 victory for the Werkself against league leaders SC Freiburg, who had remained unbeaten across all competitions until then; two players once again stood out at the BayArena: Artisic dribbler Ibrahim Maza scored Leverkusen’s first goal himself and set up the second, whilst goal-getter Patrik Schick had set up the equaliser and netted the winner. In doing so, the Czechia international set a remarkable club record. Both head coach Carles Martínez and the media were full of praise afterwards. Maza himself was also delighted with the growing rapport with “super striker” Schick: “The more we play together, the better we understand each other.” The Werkself’s comeback secured their fourth home win in their fourth home game of the season.
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