"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."
St. Pauli are the visitors to Leverkusen for today’s 3.30pm CET kick-off on Matchday 13 in the Bundesliga, with some 3,000 fans from Hamburg coming to a sold-out BayArena. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
Show moreBayer 04 take on St. Pauli in the Bundesliga for the first time in 13 years in front of a sold-out BayArena crowd on Saturday (kick-off: 3.30pm CET). Ahead of the game, head coach Xabi Alonso spoke about Pauli’s “structure and dynamic”, as well as options in attack in the absence of Patrik Schick and the final run to the end of the year.
Show moreFor the first time in 13 years, Bayer 04 welcome St. Pauli to the BayArena this Saturday (kick-off: 3.30pm CET). The promoted side have shown so far that that are a tough nut to crack, while last week’s first home win of the season proves they have potential in attack. Here’s all you need to know about our next opponents.
Show moreBayer 04 Women produced an excellent performance to beat Wolfsburg 1-0 at home on Friday night and knock the She-Wolves off top spot in the Google Pixel Bundesliga as the season reached its halfway stage. Cornelia Kramer got the only goal early in the second half in front of a crowd of 1,510 at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. The result makes it five straight wins in all competitions for Leverkusen, who go top overnight on 26 points – the best total in the club’s history from the first half of a Bundesliga season – ahead of the DFB Pokal holders with 25.
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