9.45 CET: Departure of the Werkself from the BayArena
There was an emotional start to this special cup weekend! Early on Friday morning, over 1,000 Werkself supporters and Bayer 04 employees met up on Bismarckstraße to see their team again ahead of the cup tie, to motivate them and to show them: You’re not alone on your mission. The fans formed a guard of honour on both sides of the street the bus with the Werkself on board would travel down at 9.45 en route to Cologne/Bonn Airport.
11.00 CET: Flight departs for Berlin
The charter flight took off at 11.00 and landed safe and sound at Berlin-Tegel Airport just after midday. Also on board were the two managing directors Fernando Carro and Rudi Völler plus other Bayer 04 officials. The injured Daley Sinkgraven and youth players Marcel Lotka, Fabian Rüth, Ayman Azhil and Adrian Stanilewicz flew out to the capital on Saturday morning along with selected partner representatives and Bayer 04 members of staff.
12.30 CET: Team arrives at the hotel
After the transfer to the team hotel near to Potsdamer Platz - in the centre of the action in Germany’s biggest city - and the communal lunch, head coach Peter Bosz and captain Lars Bender went to the pre-match press conference at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
18.30 CET: Final pre-match training session at the Olympic Stadium
The pre-match training session was held at the cult venue in the evening. In fine weather, Kai Havertz and Co. trained for 15 minutes in front of the media cameras as usual and 45 minutes behind closed doors.
11.00 CET: A couple of supporters in front of the team hotel
The DFB as match organisers and the finalists clearly advised fans ahead of the game not to travel Berlin because of the coronavirus pandemic and various hygiene regulations. Instead of the usual onslaught there were only a few supporters in front of the team hotel - mostly maintaining their social distance and with face masks.
14.30 CET: Pre-match walk
In the early afternoon, Peter Bosz, his coaches and players went for a communal walk as usual on matchdays to stretch the legs and get limbered up. The Berliners were not taken aback when they came across the Werkself players.
19.00 CET: Fans meet up in small groups
It got serious on Saturday night. Ahead of the 04th final involving the Black and Red, the Werkself fans met up in small group to enjoy the final in Leverkusen with a tasty meal and one or two cold drinks.
20.00 CET: The final at the Olympic Stadium
Shortly after that, it was time for referee Tobias Welz to start the 77th DFB Cup final - under exceptional circumstances - and the rest is history. The Werkself were able to collect their runners-up medals after the 4-2 defeat and then returned to the team hotel to see out the evening. On Sunday morning, Bayer 04 set off on the return journey to Leverkusen and the players started a well-deserved two-week break.
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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