The training session on Friday was the last one for the time being for the Werkself. At least in Leverkusen. Heiko Herrlich and his fellow coaches will work hard in Zell am See-Kaprun to fine tune his players. "The three friendlies have shown we haven't made much progress in terms of converting chances“, said the 46-year-old coach earlier in the week in spite of the 2-0 win at Wuppertaler SV. There is light at the end of the tunnel on the injury front: Sven Bender returned to training this morning. After the 29-year-old picked up a knock in the friendly against Siegen that led him to be sidelined – just like his brother Lars – he completed the full training session today. In contrast to Panos Retsos (fractured hand) and Charles Aránguiz (knee problems) who were only able to complete parts of the session.
The duo are likely to miss tomorrow's friendly away to Dutch top-flight side Fortuna Sittard (18.00 CET, live on bayer04.de and Facebook). The same applies to Karim Bellarabi who is being rested after suffering from heat exhaustion and he will gradually be reintroduced to training. Other players ruled out tomorrow are Joel Pohjanpalo (rehab), Lukas Hradecky (jaw op) and youngster Chinedu Ekene (muscle problems).
As a large part of the training equipment is required in Zell am See-Kaprun, it was time for Jonathan Tah, Mitchell Weiser, Xaver Zembrod and Co. to get packed after the morning session. The pre-prepared equipment such as cones, speed ladders, balls and free kick dummies were packed into a box van straight after training ready for the journey to Austria. In terms of packing, the Werkself pros have a lot to do: After tomorrow's friendly in Holland, Heiko Herrlich and his players will fly to Salzburg on Sunday afternoon. The group is expected to arrive at the team hotel in Kaprun in the early evening.
As part of the eSports training camp, that Bayer 04 are running at the LINDNER Hotel at the BayArena, there was an exhibition game on Friday afternoon involving Werkself players Lucas Alario and Sam Schreck playing against each other – each supported by Bayer 04 eSportsman Marvin 'M4RV' Hintz and the Argentinian Nicolás Villalba, the current number one in the world on the console (FIFA18) – on PlayStation. Schreck and 'M4RV' came off worse as the international between Germany and Argentina went in favour of the two South Americans in a 1-0 win.
Video game producer Electronic Arts (EA) has announced the nominees for the Men's and Women's Team of the Year (TOTY) for EA Sports FC 26. With Patrik Schick and Alejandro Grimaldo for the men and Vanessa Fudalla for the women, there are three Bayer 04 players included. Fans of the Black-and-Reds can vote for each top XI of 2025 from now until 18:59 CET on Monday 12 January.
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The Werkself host Mainz at the BayArena on matchday 24 in the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The match is on Saturday, 28 February, at 15:30 CET. Information on ticket sales.
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The long-standing successful collaboration between Bayer 04 and the transport service provider wupsi GmbH has been expanded: From January 2026, 100 wupsi bikes with Bayer 04 branding will be available for hire throughout the city of Leverkusen. They will complement the many existing offers and services that provide key support, especially for fans travelling to and from home matches at the BayArena.
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The Werkself are back! Following the two-week winter break, head coach Kasper Hjulmand's team began the new year with an open session on Sunday. After Robert Andrich and his teammates arrived in Leverkusen yesterday for the official check-in, they got back down to business a day later in front of around 1,200 fans at the Ulrich Haberland Stadion. The report from the Werkself's first session of 2026.
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