Empty seats, no support – home games at the BayArena have not been the same experience since the 4-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt in March 2020. The fans are missing, the bond between the Werkself and the North Stand is impossible due to the pandemic. Derby wins against FC Köln could not be celebrated; the wins against Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach were good to watch but there was no explosion in atmosphere like the 4-3 win against BVB in February 2020 due to obvious reasons. This special situation has led to Charles Aránguiz and his teammates sending a direct message to the Werkself fans in a video.
Schreck celebrates birthday
He also used to wear the Werkself shirt: Sam Schreck joined Leverkusen as a promising talent from FC St Pauli in 2016. The then 17-year-old mostly trained with the first team initially but played the majority of his games for the U19s. The midfielder made his debut for the Werkself in the Europa league in the autumn of 2018. Schreck, who is 21 today, moved on to FC Groningen in the Dutch Eredivisie in the summer of 2019. Up to now, he has made 33 appearances for the Green and Whites.
2008: Award for Werkself campaign
For the sporting managing director Rudi Völler, the Werkself campaign is simply "the best thing we've ever had." In the summer of 2007, Bayer 04 turned a long-standing perceived negative into a core value of our own self-image: The Bundesliga team was now officially known as the Werkself. The management asked themselves: What's so bad about the image of a works club? The answer was: Turn it round and consciously recognise the company and source of the name, Bayer AG. The change of image was an absolute hit.
The Werkself campaign won the marketing award for sports on 29 January 2008 at the twelfth ISPO Sports Sponsorship Congress in Munich. In front of over 1,000 representatives from the sports business scene, Bayer 04 managing director Wolfgang Holzhäuser plus players Bernd Schneider and René Adler received the award on behalf of Bayer Leverkusen Marketing GmbH. Leverkusen made an impression with a cheeky, ingenious and funny Werkself campaign. The campaign won out against a spot from EnBW and Air & Style; Barcelona, Hamburg SV and Borussia Dortmund did not make the first three.
