
Julian Brandt, Kai Havertz, Jonathan Tah (all with Germany), Charles Aránguiz (Chile), Aleksandar Dragovic (Austria), Lukas Hradecky (Finland), Tin Jedvaj (Croatia), Isaac Kiese Thelin (Sweden), Paulinho (Brazil U20s) plus Jakub Bednarczyk (Poland U20s) are away with their national teams: The international fixtures will be played from Thursday to Sunday (6 to 11 September) and the majority of the Bayer 04 pros will return to Leverkusen at the start of next week; only Charles Aránguiz and Tin Jedvaj will head back on Wednesday.
Head coach Heiko Herrlich had eight outfield players available for the training session on Monday afternoon in the shape of Lucas Alario, Leon Bailey, Karim Bellarabi, Sven Bender, Dominik Kohr, Sam Schreck, Kevin Volland and Mitchell Weiser – Rambo Özcan and Tomasz Kucz worked with goalkeeping coach Daniel Thiel on the training ground. Julian Baumgartlinger (knee), Panos Retsos (thigh), Joel Pohjanpalo (ankle),Wendell (knee) and Lars Bender were absent for the first session of the week; the captain did complete an individual session in the gym at the BayArena.

Despite a major personnel shake-up in the summer, RB Leipzig have performed impressively this term. Ahead of matchday 15, coach Ole Werner's team are second in the Bundesliga with a three-point lead over their upcoming opponents Bayer 04. This Saturday, 20 December (kick-off: 18:30 CET), the Werkself are away to RBL who are strong at home. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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This year - for the third time - the parents of the Bayer 04 youth players from the U8 to U15 age groups once again took part in the WDR Christmas Miracle. Under the motto "Goals against hunger in the world - parents in goal!", they organised their own fundraising campaign to once again actively support the important WDR campaign. The sum of €3,420 was handed over at the Glashaus in Essen in the middle of the week during the live programme.
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On Tuesday evening, Bayer 04's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer and its employees welcomed some very special visitors to the company's Christmas market at its headquarters in Wuppertal: Werkself players Robert Andrich, Mark Flekken, Loïc Badé, Jarell Quansah and Malik Tillman spent lots of time with Bayer 04 fans of all ages in the early evening – and also helped to serve drinks such as Glühwein (mulled wine) and delicious food.
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The Leverkusen eSports players picked up just one point on Tuesday 16 December in the remaining three matches of the online preliminary round of Showdown Three in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. As a result, the #B04eSports team once again miss out on going through to the offline knockout phase and now head into the winter break.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen has always stood for ambition, development, and progress. In recent years, these values have been reflected not only on the pitch, but beyond it. The Werkself continues to grow — regionally, nationally, and now more than ever internationally — and the recent visit from a delegation of our newest international fan club, Bayer4Arab, is a powerful example of this journey.
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