For most of the Werkself squad, the coaching staff arranged a recovery session at the gym at the BayArena following yesterday's 7-0 win in the friendly against SV Roßbach/Verscheid. The goalkeeping trio of Ramazan Özcan, Thorsten Kirschbaum and Tomasz Kucz did complete part of the morning session on the pitch – as did Benny Henrichs who did a number of intense sprint dills under the eyes of the head coach and guidance of fitness coach Schahriar Bigdeli. Charles Aránguiz and Paulinho joined in 40 minutes later to work one-to-one with fitness coach Daniel Jouvin. The Brazilian new signing then completed dribbling and shooting drills with assistant coaches Nico Schneck and Xaverv Zembrod.
A visit from a Werkself pro at the Bayer 04 Soccer School holiday camps is a long-established tradition. On Thursday afternoon, the young participants in the '19NULLVIER' lounge at the BayArena had the opportunity to interrogate new signing Mitchell Weiser with a host of questions the children were keen to pose. And the kids discovered the type of car the surprise guest drives, which of the players in Heiko Herrlich's squad he gets on best with, what his favourite food is and whether he spends spare time on the PlayStation game Fortnite. The son of the Bayer 04 youth coach Patrick Weiser was busy answering questions for a good 15 minutes. And there was more to do after that: Following the group photo at the end of the Q. and A., the defender born in Troisdorf was happy to sign autographs and satisfy selfie requests from the 100 kids present.
New signing Paulinho was busy following his arrival from Brazil on Tuesday with being introduced to his new team-mates and the DFL Media Day. The 18-year-old also attracted great interest on Thursday morning with his first appearance on the training ground. And that continued in the afternoon. The young attacking talent faced the press at the BayArena media centre. The new Werkself number seven said he had a number or resolutions. "My first target is to settle in quickly and acclimatise. And then I'd like to win titles," he revealed in a 30-minute session with the media.
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 personal 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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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended the contract with U19 midfielder Jonah Berghoff ahead of schedule. The Germany U18 international has signed professional terms with the club to 30 June 2030.
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Two months of preparation, five friendlies and the return of a familiar training camp location: After finishing fifth in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga last season, the Werkself will return to training on Tuesday, 23 June. Bayer04.de outlines the key dates in the 2026 summer timetable.
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With sixth place at the end of the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign, Bayer 04 ended a season in the top third of the table for the ninth time in a row. While the Werkself were narrowly eliminated in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 by eventual finalists Arsenal, the Black and Reds reached the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal for the third season in succession. As in previous years, you once again have the opportunity to vote for your Player of the Season. Voting is exclusively for Bayer 04 Club members and only via the Bayer 04 app up to and including 11 June.
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