In mild temperatures and occasional sunshine, Charles Aránguiz and his teammates stepped onto the pitch at the BayArena. That included Lukas Hradecky, Joel Pohjanpalo and Jonathan Tah. The Finland duo and the Germany international returned from international duty at the start of the week. Pohjanpalo and Tah did recovery work on Tuesday while goalkeeper Hradecky completed the 'normal' training session with his colleagues.
Peter Bosz and his coaching staff are intensively preparing the Werkself this week for the first round of the DFB Cup. The opponents on Sunday, 13 September (kick-off: 15.30 CET) are North Regional League side Eintracht Norderstedt. The knockout tie will be played in front of 300 spectators at the BayArena.
It will happen on Saturday, 12 September: Bayer 04 are broadcasting "90+4 – Digital kick-off to the 2020/21 season” live from 15.30 CET on YouTube and bayer04.de . We will announce content of the broadcast over the course of the week.
This will include Sven Bender presenting his brother Lars Bender with the trophy for the best goal of last season – and also giving a small speech. You can also win signed Karim Bellarabi, Kerem Demirbay and Nadiem Amiri shirts. So, join in and watch the broadcast on Saturday!
Friedhelm Renno first came to Leverkusen in 1963 when the goalkeeper joined from Arminia Bielefeld. He then played for the Werkself between the sticks for six years. In his penultimate season in Black and Red, Renno celebrated winning the Regional League West with his teammates. Bayer 04 was his last club as a professional player. But the club remained his sporting home after the end of his career: In September 1970, Renno was head coach at the Werkself for nine months. Now he is a representative on the Bayer 04 Council of Elders – and he is 80 today (Tuesday). We wish Friedhelm many happy returns!
In addition to Renno, another former Bayer 04 player celebrates his birthday on 8 September. Herbert Waas, who played for Leverkusen from 1982 to January 1990 (240 Bundesliga appearances/83 goals) and the first Germany international from Leverkusen, is 57. Bayer 04 also wish Herbert many happy returns!
The Bayer 04 women’s team secured a win in the friendly during the international break. Without a total of eight international players, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team defeated Bundesliga 2 side Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1 at the Kurtekotten Training Centre, thanks to goals from Lobke Loonen (1’, penalty), Caroline Kehrer (41') and Valentina Mädl (66').
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Bayer 04 will have to manage without striker Christian Kofane in the coming weeks. The 20-year-old sustained a muscle injury to his left thigh on international duty with the Cameroon national team during the recent international break. This will prevent him from playing in the upcoming Werkself matches.
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FSV Mainz 05 went into the international break on the back of an away win at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Currently sixth in the table, the Rheinhessen side – who have been impressive on the road – now aim to continue their good start to the Bundesliga campaign at home when they face the Werkself on Saturday, 10 October (kick-off: 15:30 CEST). In terms of squad selection, Urs Fischer once again has more options at his disposal. Up front, the Mainz coach is likely to continue relying on what is currently the league’s most successful strike partnership. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Exciting experiences and exclusive insights into the Werkself and the BayArena awaited the young footballers from the BA04 Football Academy Guangzhou in China during their visit to the Rhineland this week. As well as taking part in a joint training session with the Bayer 04 Football Academy, the youngsters marvelled at the Bundesliga club’s stadium during a guided tour. The highlight of the visit was a private press conference with former Bayer 04 striker Stefan Kießling, during which he shared tips from his own career with the young players. On Saturday afternoon, 10 October, the group will round off their visit by supporting the Werkself in the away match in Mainz.
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Fans ask, Carolin Simon answers: As part of Bayer 04’s second Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, the Leverkusen captain took questions from the community. The full-back, who returned to the club this summer after ten years away, set aside an hour and a half for the Q&A session with fans, offering a very personal insight into, amongst other things, her daily life as a footballer and her role as captain, as well as her passion for Pokémon.
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