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.
Bayer 04 have secured the services of Serbia U19 international Aleksa Damjanovic for next season. The 17-year-old centre-forward will move from Red Star Belgrade to Leverkusen in the summer on a long-term contract. The 1.98 metre tall striker is regarded as one of the most promising attacking talents in Europe and has recently impressed with strong performances at both first team and youth level. Managing director sport Simon Rolfes and director of football Kim Falkenberg particularly praise his finishing, heading ability and physical presence in the penalty area.
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The Bayer 04 eSports team made a great start to the fifth and final showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26! The Leverkusen players picked up nine points in the first three of six matches in the online preliminary round. Victories against VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Braunschweig and SpVgg Greuther Fürth not only put the Black and Reds in a good position to progress to the offline round. Valuable points were also collected for the overall table and direct entry into the final event of the German Club Championship.
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The fifth and final showdown of the VBL Club Championship 2025/26 begins for the #B04eSports team this Thursday, 12 February (live on the VBL Twitch channel from 18:00 CET), with the online preliminary round kicking off against VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Braunschweig and SpVgg Greuther Fürth. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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A Friday night derby, carnival time and floodlights: In the close race for third place in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga, the Werkself welcome FC Köln. In addition to the neighbourly rivalry, the match, kicking off at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium at 18:30 CET, is also a highly charged sporting encounter.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed a contract extension with women’s assistant coach Friederike Mehring until 30 June 2027. The 32-year-old’s previous deal was set to expire at the end of the season.
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