Football is more than just a game. Bayer 04 will show that in the coming weeks as part of the #Morethanfootball Action Weeks campaign. At the start of the campaign, players and fans plus management and staff at over 100 participating clubs from across Europe are taking part in a virtual human chain – a large number of Black and Reds have already shown how it’s done.
How the new Werkself head coach Hannes Wolf, who was presented on Tuesday (HERE is the press release), shares a past with Leon Bailey at KRC Genk. The Jamaican played for the top-flight Belgian club for a year and a half from the 2015/16 season before signing for Bayer 04.
Bailey has played for the Werkself since January 2017. The 3-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin on the last matchday was the 150th appearance for the winger in a Bayer 04 shirt. He has scored 36 goals and provided 24 assist so far. Here’s to many more, Leon.
Among the best in the world: Werkself youngster Florian Wirtz has been voted into sixth place of the top talents, born before 1 January 2002, in the NGXN Awards from GOAL, the biggest publisher of digital football content worldwide. The 17-year-old Wirtz is not only a regular starter in the Bayer 04 midfield but he was also recently called up by Germany coach Joachim Löw to the Germany senior squad for the first time.
The NXGN is carried out annually and it highlights the best young talents in women’s and men’s football. The ranking is produced by over 100 pundits from 44 countries from GOAL’s global network. With the women, Hanna Bennison of FC Rosengard came out on top and Ansu Fati (FC Barcelona) won in the men’s section.
The coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching effects on the current international break. The Bayer 04 internationals will not play in games being staged in the so-called ‘virus variant areas’. Patrik Schick was only due to play in the World Cup qualifier against Estonia on Wednesday 24 March (kick-off: 20.45 CET), which has been moved to Lublin in Poland.
As Cardiff is no longer in a virus variant area, the centre-forward will also be able to play against Wales. The match on Tuesday 30 Match kicks off at 20.45 CEST.
A special service for visually-impaired fans of the Bayer 04 Women’s team: The next home game in the FLYERLARM Women’s Bundesliga against Eintracht Frankfurt will be broadcast free of charge as an audio live commentary. The game received 80 per cent of all votes in the weekly vote for the ‘BENA-on-Air’. The home game against Frankfurt is on Friday 26 March with the kick-off at 19.15 CET. The broadcast starts ten minutes before kick-off. Click HERE for the broadcast.
A tip for watching the top game in the FFBL between the teams lying fifth and seventh in the table with the family: Switch on ‘BENA-on-Air’ and also follow the action on Eurosport.
The Leverkusen U19s were able to beat Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in a friendly at the weekend. The team under head coach Sven Hübscher beat their league rivals 6-1 at Kurtekotten. Samed Onur, who regularly trains with the first team, netted a hat-trick.
Welcome back! On Tuesday morning, 11 August, Jarell Quansah and Exequiel Palacios – the last of the Werkself’s World Cup participants – returned to training. The two medallists and their team-mates are set to play their final two pre-season friendlies in England this week before the start of competitive fixtures.
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Bayer 04 have unveiled the new third kit for the 2026/27 season. The design, developed by kit supplier New Balance, combines the city’s colours with symbols that have defined Leverkusen and Bayer 04 for generations.
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Tickets for the first two Bayer 04 women’s team home games are now on general sale. A week after their league opener away at RB Leipzig, Roberto Pätzold’s side will face last season’s runners-up, VfL Wolfsburg, in the first home fixture on Sunday 30 August (kick-off: 16:00 CEST). Fifteen days later, on Monday night, 14 September (kick-off: 18:00 CEST), the Leverkusen Women host German champions Bayern Munich at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium for a top-of-the-table league clash. You can now also select specific seats via the online shop. The latest information on match ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without Montrell Culbreath for the start of the 2026/27 season. The forward injured his foot injury in yesterday’s preseason friendly against Spanish top-flight side Sevilla (2–1), which rules him out of action for the time being. Culbreath’s diagnosis is not yet complete; further examinations are to follow in the coming days.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended midfielder Noah Mbamba’s contract by twelve months and sent the Belgian U21 international on loan to France. At FC Lorient, the 21-year-old – whose contract at Leverkusen now runs to 30 June 2029 – is set to gain playing time in Ligue 1 and, through strong performances and further development, put himself in the running for a future place in the Werkself squad.
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