"With the appointment of Thomas Eichin, we want to underline our serious ambitions in the eminently important area of youth development. Bayer 04 stood and stands for outstanding youth work at an international level that is again and again worth examining and developing further," said Simon Rolfes, sporting director at Bayer 04. "Thomas has been able to gain a lot of experience at the highest level as a player and club manager. Beyond that, he shares our ambitious target of raising the Bayer 04 youth set-up to a higher level, modernising it and establishing it nationally and internationally as a leading entity."
Thomas Eichin: "I'm very happy to be able to take up such a responsible role at one of the leading football clubs in Germany. The professionalisation of youth development has always been one of my main duties in all of my management positions to date. Now I'm looking forward to bringing in my ideas and actively being able to help shape the future at Bayer 04. The demands in and around youth development have increased dramatically in recent years, the competition between clubs is severe – that's exactly what attracts me to this job."
Born in Freiburg and holder of an A licence in coaching football, Eichin made a total of 180 Bundesliga appearances between 1985 and 1999, including 174 for Borussia Mönchengladbach. In his management career, he was a director at the ice hockey club Kölner Haie, at Werder Bremen and 1860 Munich between 2001 and 2016. Most recently, Eichin was director of the players agency and Pro7/Sat1 subsidiary SAM Sports in Munich.
With the appointment of Thomas Eichin, the previous head of the academy, Helmut Jungheim, is now in the newly created post of head trainer at the Bayer 04 coaching academy. Rolfes: "We thank Helmut Jungheim very much for his conscientious and professional work as head of the academy. We're convinced he will do an excellent job in his new role with his expertise and experience."
They narrowly missed out on the title in the spring of this year as they enjoyed their most successful season to date under the Bayer Cross. Now they want to build on that success. In an interview ahead of today's start of the new season in the VBL Club Championship by WOW (live on the Bayer 04 app from 18:00 CEST), the two Bayer 04 eSports players and cousins Marc and Sean Landwehr talk about the organisational changes to the VBL CC and their everyday lives as professional gamers and they also give pro tips for the new EA FC 26.
Show moreA Black and Red player in the U20 World Cup final in Chile. Alejo Sarco and Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 in the semi-final on Wednesday night. Morocco, who knocked out France, now await in the final on Sunday night.
Show moreHere we go! The new season of the VBL Club Championship by WOW starts on Thursday, 16 October. The games can be seen live on the Bayer 04 app and on the club Twitch channel. Bayer04.de presents an overview of the first opponents for the Leverkusen eSports team in the new season.
Show moreThe autumn holidays attracted a host of Bayer 04 fans to the BayArena on Tuesday, 14 October. An open training session for the Werkself in the morning ended with the players taking time out for selfies and autograph requests from the 160 or so fans in attendance. During a children's press conference organised by Barmenia Gothaer, Werkself player Arthur and Kristin Kögel from the Bayer 04 Women's team fielded questions posed by the youngsters. Meanwhile, a trio of young players from the Leverkusen U19 squad put a smile on everyone's faces at a meet & greet event. And fans enjoyed a range of exciting activities at the Fanwelt.
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