Football, with its enormous reach and attraction again and again serves as an outstanding platform to convey and promote values such as tolerance and integration. With this target, the European Football for Development Network (EFDN) has launched European-wide campaign FARE (Football Against Racism Europe). The project is supported by the EU with many clubs involved – including Bayer 04. The Werkself takes a clear stand against racism and discrimination.
Heiko Herrlich played for Bayer 04 for four years (1989-93) and 24 years later he returned to Leverkusen as head coach. The 48-year-old has been head coach at FCA since March – and, on matchday five, he brings his Augsburg team to face his former club.
“When Heiko came to us, he had won promotion with Jahn Regensburg twice in succession. And it all started really well here with us. After a disappointing twelfth-place finish in the previous season, he brought a wind of change and we had a decent season,” recalls the sporting managing director Rudi Völler. However, the team performed below expectations in the second season so the club management decided to replace Herrlich with Peter Bosz in December 2018.
“We get on well together now. I’m happy for him that he has made such a good start to the new season with Augsburg,” said Völler. Fernando Carro, chairman of the board, is also positive about the time with Heiko Herrlich: “He was the first coach I worked with as CEO at Bayer 04. We had a lot of regular communication – and even today – a good relationship. After the game against us, I obviously wish him every success with Augsburg.
In addition to Herrlich, there will be another former Leverkusen man in the away dugout on Monday. Iraklis Metaxas, youth coach at Bayer 04 from 2016 to 2019, joined Augsburg in the summer of 2020. Metaxas and Herrlich had already worked together at the DFB (2008/09) and that VfL Bochum (2009/10).
Which player should go into a jungle camp and who has to be filmed on a salsa course? Our players face these and many other amusing questions from this week on a regular basis in the new format ‘Spoilt for choice’ on the official Bayer 04 YouTube channel. First off is no less a person than Lars Bender, who sets his twin brother one or the other mean tasks and does not spare his other teammates either. If you want to know who was the best DJ at Lars Bender’s wedding and who held out longest in the ice bath then you must not miss the first episode. Click HERE for the video...
Christoph Daum can look back at a number of honours in his coaching career to date. Born in Zwickau, he started in the dugout at FC Köln and went on to win the German league title with VfB Stuttgart in 1992. Shortly after that he joined Besiktas. In Istanbul, he won the cup in 1994 and the league title a year later. Bayer 04 brought the coach back to the Bundesliga in 1996. Daum was head coach at Leverkusen to 2000. In his first season under the Bayer Cross, he finished runner-up in the Bundesliga and he earned a reward from the sports broadcaster ran; Premiere (today: Sky) named him coach of the season. Daum led the Werkself to the runners-up spot twice in 1997 and 1998.
The European drifter went on to win the double in Austria in 2003 with Austria Vienna. In 2004 and 2005 he won the Turkish league with Fenerbahçe. Daum’s most recent position as a coach was in 2016 to 2017 at the helm of the Romanian national team. On Saturday, the old hand, who received the most votes from Werkself fans as a coach in the vote for the Bundesliga All-Stars held as part of the club celebrations of 40 years in the Bundesliga, celebrates his 67th birthday – Bayer 04 wish him: Many happy returns!
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 1-2 loss at VfL Wolfsburg on the 20th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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The Bundesliga home game against VfL Wolfsburg in the first half of the season was one of those classic ‘days to forget’ for Bayer 04 Women. It started with goalkeeper Charlotte Voll being shown a red card in the first minute of the game, and following a further sending-off, coach Roberto Pätzold's 9-women side ended up losing 5-1 to last season's runners-up. At 18.30 CET on Sunday, they'll have the chance to exact revenge at the AOK Stadium - and pick up valuable points in the race for third place.
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Bayern Munich come to the BayArena this Saturday with an 11-point lead in the Bundesliga as they look to take a step closer to the title. As imperious as they may seem, a weakness has emerged of late that the Werkself proved they can exploit in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Champions League. Leverkusen are also looking to make it four Bundesliga home games unbeaten against the Bavarians. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the 15:30 CET kick-off in our matchday news.
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Another home game, another top opponent - another marker? Three days after their convincing performance in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg, Bayer 04 continue their Bundesliga campaign with an equally high-calibre fixture. Matchday 26 sees league leaders Bayern Munich visit the sold-out BayArena. Ahead of the clash, head coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about a comparison between Arsenal and the Bavarians, Bayern's high-scoring performance in Europe's premier club competition and a return to the squad for one Werkself player.
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High spirits and previously untold stories: Around 100 Bayer 04 fans packed the Schwadbud fan pub in the east stand of the BayArena on Thursday evening to be there in person for the first instalment of the new series of events entitled “Rudi lädt ein” (Rudi invites you). They listened intently as long-serving Werkself players Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Kießling chatted with record appearance-maker Rüdiger Vollborn and presenter and stadium announcer Tobias Ufer about their many years together at the club, shared amusing anecdotes and revealed dressing room secrets. Anyone who missed the premiere can already look forward to the second instalment – on 12 May, Rudi will be testing the expert knowledge of Bayer 04 fans during a quiz night.
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