
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.



The Werkself conceded a goal at home for the first time since the beginning of January 67 minutes into the game against FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday. Jarell Quansah levelled late on for the final score of 1-1 to secure a point and avoid a first home defeat in six games. Bayer 04 were very critical of their performance after the game. The Werkself review.
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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 special edition jerseys to fan banners, the home game against Mainz 05 was all about the many Bayer 04 fan clubs. Accordingly, a fitting tribute to the long-standing Werkself supporters was not to be missed during half-time in the Bundesliga match. Fernando Carro, CEO, honoured the up to 50-year anniversaries of six fan clubs in front of the coaches' benches at the BayArena.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-1 draw against Mainz 05 on Matchday 24 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...

A late goal secured a point for Bayer 04 at home to FSV Mainz 05 in a match that saw the Black and Reds dominant in the second half. Despite lots of possession, the Werkself initially found few gaps and fell behind after 67 minutes when Sheraldo Becker scored in a Mainz counter-attack. In the closing stages, Leverkusen threw everything forward once again and equalised through Jarell Quansah (88').
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