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.
With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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Last-minute ecstasy, huge disappointment and a historic performance on the European stage - 2025 was a real emotional roller coaster, especially for the U19s. A rousing run in the knockout phase secured the team a place in the final of the German championships, where they lost by the narrowest of margins. Despite the departure of several key players, the young Werkself team quickly regained their usual strength and qualified for the knockout rounds in the UEFA Youth League for the first time at the end of the year. In 2025, youngsters Jeremiah Mensah and Montrell Culbreath made their debuts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. The other youth teams also contributed great performances and a number of trophies to the collective Black and Red success, while the successful Bayer 04 Future Kids project broke new ground. Read on for the 2025 review of the youth teams.
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Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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A memorable 12 months: 2025 was a year marked by success, intense competition and groundbreaking innovations for the #B04eSports team. After ending the 2024/25 season as runners-up, the Leverkusen-based console pros got down to business in a new, completely restructured season model, in which showdowns rather than divisions were the decisive factor on the road to the final round of the German Club Championship. Bayer 04 quickly earned a place in the history books of the most prestigious competition in German eSports and secured some valuable advantages for the coming year. Bayer04.de takes a look back at 12 months full of passion and the determination to take the next step.
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Sustainability once again had many faces at Bayer 04 in 2025: In community activity, the club supported countless regional campaigns, including the Leverkusener Tafel, the Frauenennotruf Leverkusen e.V. and the homeless aid organisation "Kältegang". But the Black and Reds have also been involved in good causes around the world - including the Young Coaches training programmes in Uganda and Ecuador plus the Genuine World Cup in the USA, where the Inclusion Werkself competed. Bayer 04 was also fully committed to the environment and underwent external and independently certification in accordance with the European environmental management standard EMAS, for example, to analyse and optimise the club’s environmental efforts. Looking back at sustainability in 2025.
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