"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."
Two keepers, lots of questions: Werkself captain Lukas Hradecky and U19 goalkeeper Jesper Schlich visited the BarmeniaGothaer children’s press conference in partnership with the Bayer 04 Lions Club on Wednesday afternoon. The duo faced interesting and at times unusual questions from around 50 inquisitive young journalists in the press conference room at the BayArena.
Show moreA large number of sporting directors and officials from big clubs across Europe came to the BayArena on Tuesday for the second seminar in the UEFA Sporting Director Programme (SDP) in cooperation with the ECA.
Show moreFull-back Janou Levels will leave Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of the season. The 24-year-old has activated her release clause and she will join Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg. She has signed a three-year contract.
Show moreAfter returning from Hamburg and a day off on Easter Monday, the Werkself players were back on the training ground at the BayArena on Tuesday morning. Following the session, Amine Adli was very positive in a media interview about the remaining four matches including the forthcoming home game against FC Augsburg (Saturday, 26 April, 15:30 CEST): "We will give our all to end the season as well as we can!"
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