On Tuesday morning, nine players completed a recovery session on mountain bikes including the Bender twins, Dominik Kohr, Kevin Volland and Lucas Alario, who celebrated his 26th birthday. At the same time, Karim Bellarabi, who has been suspended since the game against FC Bayern but will be available for the Hannover match, completed shooting practice with assistant coach Niko Schneck.
Julian Baumgartlinger and Panagiotis Retsos worked on their comeback on neighbouring pitches. While the Austrian was able to report "very good progress" in his recovery from a torn collateral ligament in his left knee and talked about returning to full training in the coming weeks, Retsos is already a step further on. The Greek, who suffered a torn ligament in his right thigh at the summer training camp in Zell am See, worked on a range of running and passing drills with assistant coach Xaver Zembrod and he could soon be in a position to train with his team-mates again. Charles Aránguiz was also at the BayArena on Tuesday. The Chilean's continuing knee problems mean he was only able to follow a special rehab session at the Werkstatt.
Up to Friday, there are three more sessions for the ten-man training group consisting of Lucas Alario, Sven Bender, Karim Bellarabi, Dominik Kohr, Kevin Volland, Mitchell Weiser and Wendell – plus the three goalkeepers staying behind in Leverkusen Ramazan Öczan, Thorsten Kirschbaum and Tomasz Kucz. Capitain Lars Bender and Kai Havertz, who misses the chance of making another appearance for Germany following a knee injury picked up against Freiburg, continue to work on their own.
Ten Werkself internationals are set to represent their countries from Thursday to Tuesday. In addition to the eight call-ups expected (Jakub Bednarzcyk, Julian Brandt, Aleksandar Dragovic, Lukas Hradecky, Tin Jedvaj, Isaac Kiese Thelin, Paulinho and Jonathan Tah), there are two others: Leon Bailey has decided to accept the invitation to play for the Jamaican national team. The 21-year-old is set to make his international debut against Bonaire on 15 October. Sam Schreck was called up to the Germany U20 squad on Monday by coach Mikel Schönweitz (for the friendlies against the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended the contract with U19 midfielder Jonah Berghoff ahead of schedule. The Germany U18 international has signed professional terms with the club to 30 June 2030.
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With sixth place at the end of the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign, Bayer 04 ended a season in the top third of the table for the ninth time in a row. While the Werkself were narrowly eliminated in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 by eventual finalists Arsenal, the Black and Reds reached the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal for the third season in succession. As in previous years, you once again have the opportunity to vote for your Player of the Season. Voting is exclusively for Bayer 04 Club members and only via the Bayer 04 app up to and including 11 June.
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With 46 points in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga, the Bayer 04 Women’s team once again broke the previous season's club record and ended up in fifth place - 15 wins is also a record. As in previous years, you now have the opportunity to vote for your Player of the Season. Voting is open exclusively to Bayer 04 Club members and only via the Bayer 04 app by 11 June.
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The guests at the Scala Club in Leverkusen were amazed when host Reiner Calmund suddenly brought the Managing Director of Sport at Bayer 04, Simon Rolfes, and record Werkself appearance maker Rüdiger Vollborn onto the stage. As part of the show "An Evening with Football & Friends", organised by long-serving Bayer 04 managing director and general manager Calmund, the two surprise guests drew plenty of applause - and provided great entertainment in exciting conversations about the past and future.
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