The last Bundesliga home game of the season for the Werkself is against Schalke 04 on Saturday 11 May (15.30 CET). On matchday 33, Bayer 04 celebrate a weekend of events in honour of the 40th anniversary of promotion to the top flight and invite fans to take a trip back through time. The day after the Schalke game on Sunday (12 May, from 9.30 CET) Bayer 04 fans will have the opportunity to meet numerous black and red heroes of yesterday, today and tomorrow at the Day of Tradition in and around the BayArena. But there is more!
The weekend begins on Friday (10 May from 19.04 CET) with the chance to celebrate 'Promotion Day'. Almost 40 years to the day – 13 May 1979 to be exact – Bayer 04 drew 3-3 with Bayer 05 Uerdingen at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium to secure promotion to the Bundesliga and finally see the dream of top-flight football come true. This historic moment in the club's history sees the club dedicate their own event, including Q & A sessions, anecdotes and historic video material. Celebrate the whole evening with the Werkself and get to meet promotion heroes of 1979 and other surprise guests at the '19nullvier' lounge at the BayArena.
Tickets for 'Promotion Day' are available now for five euros from the Bayer 04 Fan Liaison (Fanhaus Bayer 04, Breidenbachstraße 46, 51373 Leverkusen) as well as from the Fan Kiste container from 13.30 CET on the day of the Werkself home game against FC Nürnberg (20 April, 15.30 CET). With every ticket sold, support goes to the Kreativ Schwarz-Rot (Creative Black and Red) club whose activities include financing and implementing creative ideas of the Leverkusen fans in the form of choreography. In addition, the price also includes a free drink.
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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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