The German Football Association (DFB) has put Dr. Matthias Jöllenbeck in charge of today’s match. The 34-year-old has officiated in six Bundesliga fixtures this term but the game on matchday 18 is the first one involving the Werkself this term. The only Black and Reds match he has refereed was last season’s goalless draw at TSG Hoffenheim on matchday 28. His assistants at the BayArena are Christof Günsch and Jonas Weickenmeier, Pascal Müller is the VAR match official. We wish them every success.
Werkself LIVE is out again for the first fixture of the year. The matchday magazine is available online free of charge. The Bayer 04 matchday flyer, revamped for this season, contains interesting stats and facts on the encounter between the Werkself and Union Berlin. HERE is the link to the e-paper.
The teams will come onto the pitch a couple of minutes earlier. The reason for that is a minute’s silence in memory of Willibert Kremer who passed away on Christmas Eve. The coach, who took his team to the top flight in 1979, was 82 years old. The Werkself will wear black ribbons today.
The visitors from the capital lost their first two opening fixtures in the second half of the Bundesliga season: 3-1 at RB Leipzig in 2019/20, 2-1 at Augsburg last term. Up to now, only FC St. Pauli have lost the first three games in the second half of the season in the Bundesliga.
Bayer 04 congratulate four Black and Red birthday boys on this Saturday. Wilfried Seifert (73 years old) and the goalkeepers Pascal Zuberbühler (50) and Benedikt Fernandez (36) celebrate their birthdays as does Dr. Karl-Heinrich Dittmar. The 59-year-old has worked for the Werkself since 2002 and he has headed the medical section for many years. The Leverkusen-born doctor was appointed medical director at Bayer 04 in July 2019. Many happy returns.
Winger Synne Skinnes Hansen is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of the season. The 29-year-old, who will be out of contract, is set to join Valerenga IF back home in Norway.
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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 personalised 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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Analysing and further developing goalkeeping together is the target of the annual goalkeeping coaches meeting of the German Football Association (DFB). The goalkeeping coaches in the Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2 and the third division, divided into regional groups, meet every year under the guidance of DFB goalkeeping coordinator Marc Ziegler. Following 2023, the meeting of the goalkeeping coaches of professional clubs from the Western region took place yesterday, Tuesday 29 April, at the BayArena for the second time. The Werkself goalkeeping coach David Thiel acted as the host of the meeting and he made an impromptu contribution.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed to loan U19 striker Artem Stepanov to FC Nürnberg, currently tenth in Bundesliga 2, for the 2025/26 season. The Ukrainian centre-forward is set to gain match practice at a high level under the guidance of FCN coach and World Cup winner Miroslav Klose. The loan is due to run for twelve months.
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