First, Benni Zander and Alex Schlüter welcomed the 38-year-old to the Podcast stage. As part of the ‘kicker meets DAZN’ podcast, Rolfes talked about his time as a TV pundit for the broadcaster ZDF. “It wasn’t at all easy to explain what’s happened in a game in 90 seconds.”
The Bayer 04 honorary captain had one lasting impression from the time he completed his Master for International Players (MIP), a two-year course offered by UEFA. In addition to Rolfes, other big names in football like Eric Abidal and Juninho have also earned that qualification. “It was a great networking opportunity. Sometimes it was a bit like a school trip – we quickly became a team and are still in contact with each other.” Other subjects on the podcast, that will be available from Monday on all the usual platforms, included the transfer strategy at Bayer 04 and also the level of communication between the new generation of sporting directors.
As well as Rolfes, this definitely includes Marcel Schäfer. The 35-year-old hung up his boots in 2018 and is now the sporting director at VfL Wolfsburg after ten years playing for the Wolves. Rolfes and Schäfer know each other well from their time of playing each other. They both took part in a DFB leadership trip to the USA in December. They met up again at SPOBIS – on the stage. Along with two other speakers, they talked about their relationship with players, agents and clubs.
The final day of SPOBIS 2020 on Thursday sees Black and Red representation on the stage again; this time it is Fernando Carro, the chairman of the board at Bayer 04. The 55-year-old will be joined on-stage by Axel Hellmann (member of the board at Eintracht Frankfurt), Oliver Leki (member of the board at SC Freiburg) and Bernd Hoffmann (chairman of the board at Hamburg SV). The subject covered by the quartet: ‘Bundesliga: What we have learned from our mistakes and now have to do better’.
Once again in the last four! Bayer 04 put in a mature and, for long stretches, commanding performance to defeat a courageous FC St. Pauli in the quarter-finals of the 2025/26 DFB Pokal to reach the semi-finals of the competition for the third time in a row. Martin Terrier gave Leverkusen the lead on 32 minutes before Patrik Schick made it 2-0 on 63 minutes. Substitute Jonas Hofmann capped off a strong second half for the Werkself with the third goal in added time.
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The German Football League (DFL) has announced the three candidates for the title of Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for January. That includes Werkself player Jarell Quansah. Fans of Bayer 04 can vote for their favourite on the Bundesliga app from now until Thursday, 5 January (23:59 CET).
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As in the past two years, the Werkself are aiming to come out on top in the DFB Pokal quarter-finals on Tuesday night, 3 February (kick-off: 20:45 CET). With eleven home games in a row without defeat against the Kiezkicker, the Black and Reds go into the floodlit match in confident mood. But the Pokal, as is often said, has its own magic and the team from the Millerntor has much more to offer than the current 17th place in the Bundesliga would suggest. After all, Bayer 04 are one of the big German teams the combative Hamburgers have already made life difficult for this season. The matchday news.
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The Leverkusen eSports team picked up valuable points and made up ground in the overall table with a top four finish in the offline round in Showdown 4 in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. In the round of 16, Showdown 1 winners Bayer 04 defeated the unbeaten runners-up in the previous round, VfL Bochum, in a thrilling penalty shoot-out. The Landwehr cousins, themselves the current club runners-up, then beat the current club champions and Showdown 3 winners RB Leipzig. It was not until the semi-finals that they lost out to the eventual showdown winners Borussia Mönchengladbach.
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Welcome to Leverkusen, Rafaela Borggräfe. Bayer 04 have signed the goalkeeper on loan from Liverpool until the end of the season. Bayer04.de profiles the 25-year-old.
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