
Following the DFB Cup final on 4 July and an unusual and intensive run of games, the Werkself were able to enjoy a break before the first coronavirus tests are taken on Wednesday evening. A second set of tests will be carried out on Thursday morning and the first training session will be held tomorrow night. That marked the start of preparations for the Round of 16 second leg match in the Europa league against Glasgow Rangers on 6 August (kick-off: 18.55 CET).
Also undergoing tests is summer signing Lennart Grill. The goalkeeper joined Bayer 04 from third division FC Kaiserslautern and – given a negative test result – he will take part in the first training after a short break.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the initial training session and all other sessions will be held behind closed doors until further notice.
The Werkself are in second place behind FC Bayern on 61.5% in the Bundesliga rankings of teams with the most possession last season. Another stat was published on Wednesday in the Sport Bild magazine and the Black and Reds also did very well in that – and it is a Europea-wide statistic. Bayer 04 covered an average per game of 11.9 kilometres in possession of the ball. This figure puts the Bosz team fourth of all the clubs from the top five leagues in Europe (England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany). The ranking led by FC Bayern sees the Werkself ahead of big clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain and Juventus.
Bayer 04 are also high up the table in the top five leagues in terms of the number of passes per game: The average of 656 completed passes puts the Rhinelanders in seventh place. Ahead of Liverpool, Napoli, Real Madrid and Juventus.
After relegation from the second division, Dynamo Dresden have extended the contract with assistant coach and former Werkself player Heiko Scholz by twelve months to 2021. The 54-year-old former winger joined Bayer 04 from Dresden as a player in 1992 and he went on to play in 75 Bundesliga matches for the Black and Reds (five goals, five assists). After three years, he moved on to Werder Bremen where he ended his playing career in the summer of 2000.
Scholz has been a coach since 2003. In December of last year, he gave up his position as head coach at the North-East Regional League side Wacker Nordhausen and took over as caretaker coach at Dynamo following the dismissal of Christian Fiel. Scholz is now assistant to Dynamo Dresden's head coach Markus Kauczinski.

Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
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Bayer 04 have agreed a loan deal for Jeanuel Belocian to join fellow Bundesliga club Wolfsburg on loan until the end of the season. The 20-year-old defender’s contract in Leverkusen runs until 30 June 2029.
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SAB-P GmbH is to become Bayer 04 Leverkusen's first official inclusion partner. The company, which has previously been involved in the club's Business Club, is underlining its social commitment to inclusion with an agreement that runs until 31 May 2027. Among other things, it will be the shirt sponsor of the Inclusion Team from the 2026/27 season onwards.
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The Werkself were impressive in the 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt with clinical finishing and a first half "at a high level" that head coach Kasper Hjulmand draws a lot of positives from. The same should apply to Arthur, who scored for the first time in the Bundesliga. Edmond Tapsoba, for his part, was happy about his 250th appearance in a Bayer 04 jersey. "I think we're slowly finding our feet again," said goalscorer Malik Tillman, summing up the performance. The Werkself review.
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