Wirtz and Retsos will not join national squads
In agreement with Bayer 04 and their national associations, Florian Wirtz and Panos Retsos will not be involved in international fixtures this week.
Germany coach Stefan Kuntz selected Wirtz for the Germany U21 squad for the first time for the Euro qualifiers against Moldova on 3 September and Belgium on 8 September. In agreement with Bayer 04 head coach Peter Bosz, Kuntz will now manage without the 17-year-old.
"Of course, we have important games in September. Nevertheless, we look at each individual player to decide what's best for his current situation and further development. We would have been very happy to have Florian Wirtz with us. But that doesn't make sense at the moment with the break after the Europa League tournament. He first needs to have a decent pre-season before his first U21 internationals," explained the Germany coach.
In the case of Panos Retsos, who should be joining the Greece U21 squad for the two Euro qualifiers against the Czech Republic and San Marino, Bayer 04 and the Greek FA have both agreed that Retsos should complete the pre-season ahead of the 2020/21 campaign with the Werkself and miss out on the internationals.
Related News
Bayer 04 - 27.12.2025
AFCON blog: Ben Seghir debut - Tapsoba and Maza score
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...
Show more
Women - 23.12.2025
Women: Home derby on a Friday night - matchdays 16 - 19 scheduled
Two Saturdays, one Friday and one Sunday: The dates for the Bayer 04 Women's team games on matchdays 16 to 19 have been finalised. Three of the four matches scheduled by the German Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday will be played at home at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
Show more
Bayer 04 - 23.12.2025
Loan watch: Half-term report on Leverkusen players away on loan
Bayer 04 currently have a number of promising young talents on loan to various clubs in Europe with the aim of gaining match practice and furthering their individual development. Francis Onyeka and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht, for example, play for VfL Bochum 1848, while Artem Stepanov is a striker with 1. FC Nürnberg, coached by World Cup winner Miroslav Klose. Tim Oermann is a defender in the Austrian Bundesliga at top club SK Sturm Graz and Abdoulaye Faye is playing in France for FC Lorient, promoted to Ligue 1 this season. Bayer04.de reviews the first six months for the Leverkusen players out on loan.
Show more
Women - 22.12.2025
Brave performance goes unrewarded: Women lose to Bayern Munich in final game of the year
Despite a courageous display, the Bayer 04 Women missed out on a surprise at the start of the second half of the Bundesliga season. Coach Roberto Pätzold's team lost 3-0 to league leaders Bayern Munich on Monday night. An early goal from the clinical visitors, a disputed penalty and another spot-kick prevented Leverkusen, who are seventh in the table on 22 points from 14 games, from picking up a point in front of 3,011 spectators at the sold-out Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
Show more
