On training ground number one at the BayArena, Alonso greeted the Werkself squad plus eight outfield players and three goalkeepers from the youth teams. The Spanish head coach had to manage without the players recently away on international duty in Amine Adli, Sardar Azmoun, Adam Hlozek, Lukas Hradecky, Exequiel Palacios, Patrick Pentz, Edmond Tapsoba and Florian Wirtz as well as the two new signings Jonas Hofmann and Granit Xhaka.
"Jonas and Granit have a huge amount of experience and are important components we need for our team," said sporting managing director Simon Rolfes in response to a question after training about the two recently signed midfielders.
The injured players Patrik Schick, Robert Andrich, Piero Hincapie and goalkeeper Niklas Lomb also missed the opening session (see Werkself injury update). Odilon Kossounou, who missed the run-in at the end of last season with a thigh injury, did return for the start of preseason to complete parts of full training.
The action on the pitch started at 10.00 CEST. The 90-minute session started with a warm-up routine followed by passing practice. Several hundred fans came, including the children at the Bayer 04 Soccer School, to watch the Leverkusen players at their first session of the new season. The highlight came after training session: selfies and group photos with the players plus autographs on shirts, rucksacks, trousers and elsewhere.
Anybody attending tomorrow's open training session on Wednesday 12 July has the opportunity to secure the new Bayer 04 home shirt for the coming season. This is available from 10.00 CEST from the fan shop at the BayArena and following training Bayer 04 fans can have their new shirts signed by Werkself players.
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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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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