
While Brandt, who played 90 minutes in the international against Peru on Sunday, only completed the warm-up routine to avoid over-exertion, Havertz and Tah finished the whole session. The same applied to Wendell, who has recently only been doing light training following the injury to his left foot. Lars Bender trained with the ball for 90 minutes on the neighbouring pitch.
Apart from the injured players Julian Baumgartlinger, Panos Retsos and Joel Pohjanpalo (all in rehab), the rest of the Bayer 04 international stars will be back by Thursday. Today, Lukas Hradecky, Aleksandar Dragovic, Tin Jedvaj and Charles Aránguiz are all involved in international fixtures. Isaac Kiese Thelin could be back with the Werkself tomorrow – the 26-year-old on-loan striker was in action last night with Sweden in the Nations League. Sweden – in spite of opening the scoring – ended up losing by the odd goal in five against Turkey due to two late strikes.
Another Werkself pro now has two more trophies: Leon Bailey was presented with the two trophies from the German Professional Footballers Association (VDV) after the Tuesday morning training session. Bundesliga players voted the Jamaican the best Newcomer of the Season following his impressive performances last term. His fellow professionals also voted him into the VDV team of the season. Lars Lindgen, the head of VDV, was joined by Bayer 04 honorary captain Carsten Ramelow on his old stomping ground to present the awards. The 44-year-old, who made a total of 437 appearances for the Werkself between 1996 and 2008, has been vice-president of VDV since 2003.



This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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