News in brief: Völler on Sportstudio – Werkself at the BayArena

'Das aktuelle Sportstudio’ on ZDF is one of the most famous sports programmes in Germany. Leverkusen sporting managing director Rudi Völler is the guest in the studio in Mainz this Saturday evening, 3 April. The 60-year-old will discuss a number of issues with presenter Sven Voss including his decision not to extend his contract at Bayer 04 due to run out in 2022.

In an interview with Sport Bild, Völler recently spoke about his decision: "I discussed this with my wife Sabrina at Christmas. Since then it's been clear that 2022 will be the end for me. At least in this form. Now is the right time because the club is fundamentally in a good position."

Groundhopping at Wednesday training session

Bayer 04 head coach Hannes Wolf opted for a training session split in two on Wednesday: The warm-up and the following passing drills were completed by Charles Aránguiz and Co. at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium with the second part of the session on the pitch at the BayArena. There was an intense 11 v 11 match for the Werkself. Following on from the session on Tuesday, U19 players Marvin Alexa (see photo below) and Joshua Eze joined the group.

Lennart Grill completed his first training session under new coach Wolf. The goalkeeper has returned from the U21 European Championship where progress to the last eight was secured for Germany last night thanks to a goalless draw with Romania. For Grill and Co. the competition continues with the quarter-finals in Székesfehérvár in Hungary on 31 May. This will involve the teams that finished first and second in the four groups.

Wolf will hold training sessions every day up to the Bundesliga home game against Schalke 04 on Saturday, 3 April (kick-off: 15.30 CEST). The match against the bottom side will be the first game for the 39-year-old as the Werkself head coach.

New Werks11 Magazine

The new Werks11 Magazine is on its way to Bayer 04 members. As usual, edition 30 includes a wealth of interesting information relating to the Werkself and life at Bayer 04. Fernando Carro, chairman of the board at Bayer 04, has met with four representatives of the fans to discover their experience of football during the coronavirus pandemic.

The editors met up with Nadiem Amiri for an interview at a football pitch in Rheindorf. A detailed look at our three winter signings Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Jeremie Frimpong and Demarai Gray is included as is a portrait of goalkeeper Lennart Grill. There is also an introduction to the Japanese player Mina Tanaka from the Bayer 04 Women's team plus the new U19 coach Sven Hübscher. On top of that, there are a large number of other entertaining articles, reports and impressive photos from the Black and Red world.

Vote now: Bayer 04 Goal of the Month

Once again you are spoilt for choice. Bayer 04 are looking for the best goal in the month of March 2021 presented by like2drive. The nominations this time round are the Werkself striker Patrik Schick, U19 player Samed Onur plus Chiara Bücher and Mina Tanaka from the Women's team. Click HERE to vote on Facebook.

Obligation under discussion: Training of Bundesliga managers

The German Football Association (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL) last year introduced a course on management in professional football. Stefan Kießling, first team coordinator at Bayer 04, was one of 14 participants to start the course. In a recent interview with bayer04.de, the former player revealed details of the qualification which could become compulsory for Bundesliga managers in the future. As the head of the DFB Academy Tobias Haupt revealed to the news website t-online, the DFB and DFL are already holding intensive discussions on an appropriate change to the statutes.

Anders als bei Trainern – diese müssen den Fußball-Lehrer-Lehrgang durchlaufen, um in der Bundesliga als Chefcoach arbeiten zu können – gab es bei den Managern der Bundesliga bis 2020 keine klassische Standardausbildung. Die Wege in das Berufsfeld waren daher unterschiedlichster Natur.