Bayer 04 qualified for next season’s Champions League campaign a week and a half ago and now 25 teams are through to the group stage. The latest to make it on Sunday were the Russian club Locomotive Moscow (including former Germany international Benedikt Höwedes) plus, from Italy, Inter Milan and, for the first time in the club’s history, Atalanta Bergamo with their German left-back Robin Gosens. The Werkself could face any of the three teams in the group stage but up to now they definitely will not play FC Salzburg or Valencia. Those two teams are in Pot 3 along with Bayer 04.
The line-up so far is (as at 28 May 2019): Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Bayer 04 (all Germany), Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur (all England), Juventus, Napoli, Atalanta, Inter Milan (all Italy), Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid, Valencia (all Spain), Paris St. Germain, Lille OSC (both France), Zenit St. Petersburg, Lokomotiv Moscow (Russia), Benfica (Portugal), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), KRC Genk (Belgium), Galatasaray (Turkey) plus FC Salzburg (Austria).
If Arsenal, with former Bayer 04 goalkeeper Bernd Leno, win the Europa League final on Wednesday then the London club would be the fifth English team in the Champions League. The other places will be determined from the end of June via individual qualifying rounds.
The qualified clubs can not just look forward to unforgettable nights of football but also significant amounts of money. UEFA are expected to announce next week how high the bonuses will be for the participants. In comparison to the Europa League, it should be a financial quantum leap. In 2018/2019, UEFA distributed over €2 billion to the clubs and each of the 32 participants received starting bonus of 15.25 million. On top of that, there are performance bonuses. By comparison: Bayer 04 received a starting bonus of less than €3 million in the Europa League last season.
Next Saturday’s final between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur provides further impressive numbers. The match will be broadcast live in over 200 countries and between 300 and 400 million people will watch the final. That makes the Champions League final one of the biggest individual sporting events in the world – and a former Bayer 04 pro is centre stage. Heung-Min Son, who scored 29 goals in 87 games for the Werkself between 2013 and 2015, played an enormously important role in Spurs qualifying for the final of the Champions League for the first time. The South Korean demonstrated his ability in the quarter-finals against Premier League champions Manchester City with the only goal of the game in the first leg and a brace in the 4-3 defeat in the second. Now Son is about to play in the biggest Champions League game of his career. His first was with the Werkself: He provided the assist for Simon Rolfes to level at 1-1 in the 4-2 defeat against Manchester United in September 2013.
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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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended the contract with U19 midfielder Jonah Berghoff ahead of schedule. The Germany U18 international has signed professional terms with the club to 30 June 2030.
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Two months of preparation, five friendlies and the return of a familiar training camp location: After finishing fifth in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga last season, the Werkself will return to training on Tuesday, 23 June. Bayer04.de outlines the key dates in the 2026 summer timetable.
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With sixth place at the end of the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign, Bayer 04 ended a season in the top third of the table for the ninth time in a row. While the Werkself were narrowly eliminated in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 by eventual finalists Arsenal, the Black and Reds reached the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal for the third season in succession. As in previous years, you once again have the opportunity to vote for your Player of the Season. Voting is exclusively for Bayer 04 Club members and only via the Bayer 04 app up to and including 11 June.
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