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.
In mid-August, the Werkself will set off on a four-day trip to England to play their final two friendly matches of the 2026/27 pre-season against Premier League clubs Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United. The match in Nottingham against the Tricky Trees is on Wednesday 12 August at 20:45 CEST (19:45 BST) at the City Ground. The game against the Magpies in Newcastle is on Saturday 15 August at 16:00 CEST (15:00 BST) at the atmospheric St James’ Park. Details on ticket sales for both matches.
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Black and Red talent development at the highest level – even off the pitch: Apprentices Jule Suermann, Leandra Bellia and Julia Niederheide have successfully completed their two- or three-year apprenticeships at the club. Bayer 04 honoured the trio at the BayArena on Tuesday.
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The Werkself return tomorrow, Tuesday 14 July (from 11:00 CEST at the BayArena; live stream on bayer04.de, the Bayer 04 app and YouTube), with new head coach Carles Martínez leading his first training session as part of the Bayer 04 set-up. His coaching team comprises a mix of new and long-standing colleagues.
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The Germany U19 team were beaten 2-0 by record champions Spain in the final of the U19 European Championship in Wales. Bayer 04 players Montrell Culbreath and Francis Onyeka (on loan at SV 07 Elversberg) were in the starting line-up and played the full 90 minutes.
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