Kevin Volland underwent a successful operation on his ankle last night following the injury suffered in Thursday’s 2-1 win in the Europa League game against FC Porto. The operation was performed by Professor Walther at the Schön-Klinik Harlaching in Munich. The 27-year-old posted a thumbs-up photo from hospital on Instagram on Tuesday afternoon. In spite of the pain and the prospect of weeks in rehab, Volland has not lost his sense of humour as he wrote on his plaster cast with a wink of the eye: “The football boot is back on.” Volland will start his rehab treatment at the Werkstatt in Leverkusen.
While Volland is recovering from his operation, the Werkself fly out to Porto tomorrow (Wednesday) for the second leg in the Round of 32 tie (Thursday, 27 February, 18.55 CET – live text commentary and Werks11 Radio at bayer04.de). Both the Werkself and FC Porto enjoyed a boost at the weekend ahead of the game: The ‘Dragons’ beat next-to-bottom Portimonense SC in the league on Saturday. The winning goal was scored by Alex Telles a few minutes before the end of the game.
Talking about Europa League: If the Werkself go through to the Round of 16 on Thursday night, then Friday will be exciting. The draw in Nyon is at 13.00 CET.
Today, Shrove Tuesday, marks the end of the current carnival season – it’s been very colourful, entertaining and fun at Bayer 04 too. At the carnival parades in Leverkusen, Brian the Lion and the Schwadbus flew the flag for the club. On Friday, members of the Löwenclub were in Hitdorf, the Bayer 04 Club and the Silver Lions were in Schlebusch on Saturday and Bayer 04 members of staff were in Opladen on Rose Monday with countless sweets distributed at all parades. Unfortunately, the weather put paid to the hopes of the Teens04 on Sunday – the carnival procession in Wiesdorf was cancelled due to the prospect of heavy storms. The day was not a complete washout for the group – it ended on a high note with a 2-0 win for the Werkself against FC Augsburg at the BayArena.
The ‘Sportschau’ included Exequiel Palacios in their ‘Team of Matchday 23’. The ‘Kicker’ put Nadiem Amiri in their ‘Team of the Day’. The sports journal also named the 23-year-old as the Man of the Match after the Werkself game against FC Augsburg. The reasons: “He was the driving force in Bayer’s game, won the ball a lot in defence and often made himself available. Nadiem Amiri scored to make 2-0 at the end of an unstoppable run.”
While the Werkself still have eleven games to play in the Bundesliga, the #B04eSports players have their final matchday night. In the Virtual Bundesliga (VBL), Kai ‘Deto’ Wollin and Fabian ‘B04_Dubzje’ De Cae entertain Eintracht Frankfurt. The matches against the team in ninth place start at 20.30 CET. As usual, the games will be streamed live at Twich (https://www.twitch.tv/b04esports).
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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