The Werkself training ground was less busy on Monday morning. Heiko Herrlich and his fellow coaches had ten less first team players available due to the international break: Julian Brandt, Benjamin Henrichs and Bernd Leno are away with Germany, Julian Baumgartlinger, Aleksandar Dragovic (both Austria), Admir Mehmedi (Switzerland), Kevin Kampl (Slovenia) and Charles Aránguiz (Chile) are also with their national squads. The same applies to Jonathan Tah (Germany U21s) and Kai Havertz plus the two U19 youth players Atakan Akkaynak and Sam Schreck (Germany U19s). Joel Pohjanpalo, who had been called up by Finland, is ruled out after his hip injury suffered on Friday. He has started his rehab programme at the Werkstatt.
Heiko Herrlich almost missed the first training session in the international break. The Bayer 04 head coach had been in Hanover since Sunday with most of the other head coaches of Bundesliga clubs. The DFB held a coaches meeting on Monday with Germany coach Joachim Löw and DFB sporting director Horst Hrubesch plus the coaches of the Germany youth sides and national team manager Oliver Bierhoff also taking part. Herrlich did return to Leverkusen in time and was able to start preparations for this Thursday's friendly against VfL Bochum at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium at 15.00 CET.
For the open session in the afternoon there was an additional VIP on the training ground. A familiar face in Paulo Rink visited his former stomping ground – the 44-year-old German Brazilian played for Leverkusen from 1997 to 2002 scoring 34 goals in 119 appearances.
He was happy to take time out for a chat with bayer04.de: "I watched the game against Hoffenheim on Saturday and I’m always happy to be back here," declared the former striker who also earned 13 caps for Germany. "The time at Bayer 04 was the best part of my career in Germany. We had a great team, played in the Champions League and we always in and around the top of the Bundesliga. And both my boys were born here," said Rink. Except for the 1999/2000 season. "The story with Unterhaching still hurts today," he said. Rink is now actively involved in politics as a councillor in his home town of Curitiba. He always tries to get to Germany once a year. "I've lots of friends in Leverkusen and always like being here. It's great to see my old team-mates again like Hans-Peter Lehnhoff and Ulf Kirsten. And Harald Wohner (support staff and kit man) who is still working at Bayer 04 at the age of 82," said Rink.
As vice-president of a Brazilian fourth division club he also used the visit to his old home ground for other reasons: The Veterans team of his club is currently playing friendlies in Germany and are due to visit Leverkusen on Thursday. "The squad is mainly made up of business people. I'd like to show them where I used to play and train. But also show them how the club Bayer 04 Leverkusen is organised," said Rink who met up with Dirk Dreher on Monday to arrange a game against the Bayer 04 Veterans. The match will be played on Friday (15.00 CET). That will give him the opportunity to be back on the pitch with Hans-Peter Lehnhoff, Ulf Kirsten and Co.
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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