It was matchday 25 in the 1999/00 season – the match away to SSV Ulm at the Donau Stadium kicked off at 15.30 CET in front of 23,500 spectators. Bayer 04, then second in the table behind Bayern Munich, had gone six games unbeaten; at the same time, the 'Sparrows' were in confident mood after two wins in succession and an unbeaten run stretching back to November of the previous year.
Ulm missed two chances at the start of the game – the Werkself were more clinical: Emerson and Paulo Rink started the goal fest. Ulf Kirsten added a third and Emerson doubled his tally to make it 4-0 at half-time.
The Werkself were on top of their game in the first half and the team coached by Christoph Daum carried on in the same vein in the second 45 minutes: Oliver Neuville, Michael Ballack, Zé Roberto with a brace and Bernd Schneider scored to make it 9-0 for Bayer 04. Ulm's Leandro netted a consolation goal just before the end of the game for the final score of 9-1.





Bayer 04: Juric – Nowotny, Ramelow, R. Kovac – Emerson, Ballack, Zé Roberto (Bernd Schneider 82'), Beinlich (Gresko 78') – Neuville, Rink, Kirsten (Zivkovic 52')
Goals: 0-1 Emerson (10’)
0-2 Rink (14’)
0-3 Kirsten (19’)
0-4 Emerson (39’)
0-5 Neuville (68’)
0-6 Zé Roberto (74’)
0-7 Ballack (75’)
0-8 Zé Roberto (81’)
0-9 B. Schneider (85’)
1-9 Leandro (90’)

Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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