The Black and Reds – with the exception of the international players – have time until Sunday to enjoy the summer break at their leisure before head coach Peter Bosz welcomes his charges back on Monday at 14.30 CET (open training session). A trio can hardly wait to get going again. "I'm really looking forward to Monday. I think everybody can imagine how it feels to start the new season fully fit after 13 months out injured," said Joel Pohjanpalo, who like Karim Bellarabi, has been putting in special shifts since the start of the week in Leverkusen. "I want to get ahead for the new season especially after this long injury lay-off. And I'd like to be sure that I'm in best shape and fully fit when we start with the full training sessions," said the 24-year-old striker who suffered severe problems in his right ankle shortly after the start of the last pre-season. "Since the start of June, I’ve been certain that everything is fine with my foot – I don't have any problems at all now," added Pohjanpalo.
While the Finn, together with keeper Niklas Lomb, took part in passing drills and finishing, Bellarabi worked with the ball in a one-on-one session with rehab coach Hans-Jörg Schneider and he visibly enjoyed it. The 28-year-old suffered a muscle and tendon injury at the end of March in the game against Hoffenheim that finished his season. Goalkeeper Niklas Lomb rejoins the goalkeeping team for the new campaign after a 12-month loan period at second division SC Sandhausen.
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 4-0 win at SGS Essen on the 24th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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After matchday 31 and the 2-1 derby win in Cologne, one thing is certain: Bayer 04 will at least compete in the UEFA Europa League in the coming 2026/27 campaign. But the Werkself want more. Looking at the race for Champions League qualification and the remaining three league fixtures, including against direct rivals, bayer04.de outlines the possible scenarios in the season run-in.
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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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