Paulinho started his summer break on Sunday. The Werkself number seven (pictured above wearing the number 33) has been playing for the Brazil U22 team at the Maurice Ravello tournament in Toulon. With success. The Brazil youngsters beat Japan in the final on Saturday 6-5 on penalties. Paulinho, who scored a goal and provided an assist in the 2-0 win in the semi-final against Ireland, played the full 90 minutes in the final. The 18-year-old winger scored three goals and laid on two – and he was also named ‘Best young player’ and the scorer of the ‘Best goal of the tournament’.
Today sees the start of the U21 European Championships (16 to 30 June) in Italy and San Marino for the German team led by captain Jonathan Tah. "Of course, it's always special for me being the captain," said Tah at the weekend and he spoke about a "great honour". The 23-year-old central defender joined the squad a few days ago after being on the road with the senior Germany team. "The way he leads the team not just verbally but also on the pitch is everything a coach would wish for," said Germany coach Stefan Kuntz in praise of Tah's performances. The U21 European champions of 2017 start their title defence at 21.00 CET with the first of three group matches against Denmark. On Thursday (20 June, 21.00 CET) Germany face Serbia and Austria provide the opposition on Sunday (23 June, 21.00 CET)..
Jonathan Tah is joined on international duty this week by Charles Aránguiz (Chile) and Leon Bailey (Jamaica). Aránguiz and Chile tonight play Japan (18 June, 01.00 CET) in the group stage of the Copa America (14 June to 7 July), this year held in Brazil, before Saturday's match against Ecuador (22 June, 01.00 CET). At the Gold Cup (15 June to 7 July in the USA, Costa Rica and Jamaica) Bailey and Jamaica play Honduras (18 June, 03.30 CET) and El Salvador (22 June, 01.00 CET) for a place in the quarter-finals.
The Monday edition of the sports journal kicker includes the first part of the six-monthly ranking of German football. Jonathan Tah is behind Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich) and ahead of Willi Orban (RB Leipzig) in second place ('International class'). The kicker highlights the fact that, during the evaluation period from 10 January to 14 June, Tah "Did his job reliably, stood out with his positional play and has the best average marks in his position at 2.74." Tah's team-mate Sven Bender was one of 13 Bundesliga pros named in the' Up-and-coming' section. There was a similar assessment of Wendell. The 25-year-old Brazilian was also mentioned in a similar section for full-backs thanks to his "massive improvement in performances in the second half of the season with one goal and one assist." In contrast, Lukas Hradecky misses out in the 12-man goalkeeper rankings because the kicker editors say he only produced "Top performances rarely and made too many slips." Rankings for the other position will follow in the next few days.
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 4-0 win at Wehen Wiesbaden in the first round of the DFB-Pokal 2026/27...
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Bayer 04 have comfortably reached the DFB Pokal second round thanks to a 4–0 victory away to Liga 3 side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Patrik Schick put the Werkself ahead in the first 45 in the first competitive match under head coach Carles Martínez with debuts for new signings Miguel Gutiérrez, Afonso Moreira and Facundo Medina. After the break, Lucas Vázquez (47'), Nathan Tella (69') and Christian Kofane (79') also found the back of the net.
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Today brings the first match of the season for the Werkself. Bayer 04 kick off the 2026/27 campaign today, Saturday 22 August, at 13:00 CEST with a first-round DFB Pokal tie away to third-tier side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. The 3,700 travelling fans can not only look forward to what will hopefully be a successful start to the season, but also now organise their journeys to Black and Reds games even more easily via the WERKSELFgo car-share platform. Meanwhile, following two defeats at the start of the league season, SV Wehen are hoping to spring a surprise in the DFB Pokal tie. Today’s matchday news.
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Carolin Simon is the new captain of the Bayer 04 women’s team. The full-back, who joined from Bayern Munich in the summer, will take over the captain’s armband for the 2026/27 season. Simon returned to Leverkusen in the summer after ten years away. The 33-year-old succeeds goalkeeper Friederike Repohl, who retired at the end of last season.
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