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.
With 22 days to go until the start of the Bundesliga campaign, the Bayer 04 Women’s team have gained a fresh boost of confidence. In a friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk on Saturday afternoon, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team secured a 1–0 win. Lobke Loonen (20’) scored the winner for the Black and Reds at the Kurtekotten training centre.
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A successful fourth preseason friendly ahead of the start of the training camp: The Werkself secured a 3-0 victory over Rot-Weiss Essen at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The goals in what was a commanding and dominant performance by Leverkusen from the outset were scored by Ibrahim Maza (8'), Patrik Schick from the penalty spot (23’) and, in the second half, Montrell Culbreath with a header (79’). The team set off for their training camp in Blankenhain in the Weimarer Land region after the game.
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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 personal 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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You have voted – your ‘Team of the Quarter-Century’ has been decided! This historic selection, covering the period from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2024, features honorary captains, Bundesliga champions, double winners and Champions League finalists. Edmond Tapsoba is the only player from the current Bayer 04 squad to make it into the starting XI, while his team-mate Patrik Schick is on the bench. Simon Rolfes, the current managing director sport, is also in the lie-up. A truly special team that brings together a quarter of a century of Bayer 04 history – and has left a decisive mark on the club.
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Following Patrik Schick, Mark Flekken, Ibrahim Maza and Kerim Alajbegovic earlier this week, the next World Cup participant is back on the training ground in Leverkusen: On Thursday 30 July, Malik Tillman rejoined the squad, completing his first training session under head coach Carles Martínez.
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