Volland is ranked behind Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) as the second best striker in the Bundesliga and is included in the International Class category. "The 26-year-old demonstrated his goalscoring instinct with eight goals and, with ten assists, he also showed his value to the team and demonstrated his ability to read the game," was the reasoning. "Volland has become a fixed point in Bayer's attacking game and he has finally become a leader on the pitch," the analysis continued. A noteworthy step up as the winter rankings had the striker as an outsider.
After the 4-0 win against Japan and the 2-1 victory over Ecuador, the Chile team with Charles Aránguiz have their last group match in the Copa America in the early hours of Tuesday. Aránguiz and his La Roja team-mates play second-placed Uruguay in the South American Championships at one in the morning German time. Chile can be relaxed as they already qualified the quarter-finals on Saturday. Wendell was the lucky omen and Chile fan in the stands. Wearing the Chile colours, the Brazilian crosses fingers for his Werkself team-mate – after the game Aránguiz presented him with his shirt as a thank you.
Leon Bailey is also top of the group with Jamaica at the Gold Cup. After the 3-2 win against Honduras and the goalless draw against El Salvador, Bailey and the Reggae Boyz have their last group match in the early hours of Wednesday (kick-off: two in the morning German time). There will be looking to confirm their place in the quarter-finals in the game against Curaçao
While the international players are still away with their countries, the rest of the Werkself are enjoying the last week of the summer holidays before it's back to work next week. On the morning of Monday 1 July there are the performance tests followed in the afternoon by the start of training. The first pros have already started to return to the BayArena. Returnee Niklas Lomb has been working on his own in the Werkstatt since last week. Karim Bellarabi and Joel Pohjanpalo are both expected back this week. After being sidelined with injuries in the second half of the season, they are completing a few special sessions under the guidance of Carsten Rademacher, head of the Werkstatt.
With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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The ‘year after’ the most successful year in the club's history brought many changes at Bayer 04. In an exclusive double interview with bayer04.de shortly before the Christmas break, Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes spoke about building a new team capable of winning trophies, the work of coach Kasper Hjulmand, the young new signings who have quickly developed into key players, and their personal plans for the Christmas holidays. Their outlook for the coming year also shows that the potential is far from exhausted and ambitions remain high.
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Last-minute ecstasy, huge disappointment and a historic performance on the European stage - 2025 was a real emotional roller coaster, especially for the U19s. A rousing run in the knockout phase secured the team a place in the final of the German championships, where they lost by the narrowest of margins. Despite the departure of several key players, the young Werkself team quickly regained their usual strength and qualified for the knockout rounds in the UEFA Youth League for the first time at the end of the year. In 2025, youngsters Jeremiah Mensah and Montrell Culbreath made their debuts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. The other youth teams also contributed great performances and a number of trophies to the collective Black and Red success, while the successful Bayer 04 Future Kids project broke new ground. Read on for the 2025 review of the youth teams.
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Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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A memorable 12 months: 2025 was a year marked by success, intense competition and groundbreaking innovations for the #B04eSports team. After ending the 2024/25 season as runners-up, the Leverkusen-based console pros got down to business in a new, completely restructured season model, in which showdowns rather than divisions were the decisive factor on the road to the final round of the German Club Championship. Bayer 04 quickly earned a place in the history books of the most prestigious competition in German eSports and secured some valuable advantages for the coming year. Bayer04.de takes a look back at 12 months full of passion and the determination to take the next step.
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