After days off at the start of the week as a reward for successful qualification for the Champions League, his team “were focused and in good mood in training,” as Gerardo Seoane explained on Friday afternoon. The Swiss coach is full of anticipation: “It’s our last game of the season, the atmosphere will be great – I feel everybody is really keen to play tomorrow.”
And the target is clear: a win – for the fans but also for Rudi Völler. The Hanau-born former Germany international joined Leverkusen as player in 1994 and he went on to become caretaker coach, sporting director and most recently the Bayer 04 sporting managing director. The 43-year-old coach was full of praise for the 62-year-old: “We have all benefited from Rudi’s experience and know-how and we what he has done for Bayer 04 and German football. We are very happy he will stay on in another role and we wish him all the best.” After this season, Völler will join the shareholders committee at the club and also be a Bayer 04 ambassador.
While the Werkself are certain of finishing third, Freiburg in fifth place, with a two-point gap to RB Leipzig (away to Bielefeld) in fourth, are still in with a chance of qualifying for the Champions League. “They are at the top end of the table for a reason and have absolutely deserved to qualify for Europe,” declared Seoane who primarily highlighted the strength of tomorrow’s opponents from set pieces.
Tomorrow’s game will also be the final game for Werkself player Julian Baumgartlinger. The now 34-year-old midfielder joined Bayer 04 from Mainz 05 six years ago and he went on to make over 150 appearances for the Black and Reds. Seoane said Baumi would play against SCF and he thanked him for his commitment in a Werkself shirt: “We are all very grateful to have such a player and person in our ranks. Even though he’s had a lot of bad luck with injuries this season he was always close the team and, above all, he was ready to help young players at all times. We really wish him a good future and hope he will stay fit and healthy.”
Kerem Demirbay is definitely ruled out through injury. Jeremie Frimpong is also not in the squad. “It’s come too early for him,” said Seoane who is thinking about possible changes in his line-up but he was unwilling to share his ideas at the press conference.
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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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