Salvation came late for Karlsruher FC but it did come. The KSC captain Kai Bülow scored with a header on 83 minutes in last Saturday's match against SV Wehen Wiesbaden to secure a 2-1 victory in the first win of the season on matchday four. The two-time DFB Cup winners (1955 and 1956) were relegated to the third division for the third time earlier this year. The club are hoping that this season marks a repeat of the previous ones following relegation in 2000 and 2012. The team from Baden ended those two campaigns as champions to return to the second tier. The club from the south-west of Germany are again favourites to take one of the top positions in the third division this term. However, they are currently eleventh in the table after four matches.
Head coach Marc-Patrick Meister took over the team in April 2017 in an almost hopeless position. Both Tomas Oral and Mirko Slomka had been and gone from the hot seat over the course of the season. The 37-year-old manager now faces the task of achieving consistently good results with a rejigged squad from the summer. There is certainly enough individual talent in the side: In Anton Fink, KSC signed the record goalscorer in the third division (116 goals in 254 games) from Chemnitzer FC. His strike partner Dominik Stroh-Engel joined from Darmstadt where he scored 27 goals in 2013/14; a record return for the Lilies in a third division season. Incoming players Kai Bülow (1860 Munich), David Pisot (Würzburger Kickers), Daniel Gordon (SV Sandhausen), Andreas Hofmann (SpVgg Greuther Fürth) and Marc Lorenz (SV Wehen Wiesbaden) have all demonstrated their quality in the second and third divisions. They are joined by talented youngsters with a lot of promise who moved from Bundesliga U23 teams to the Wildpark plus Germany U20 international Matthias Bader from the club's own youth system.
KSC have had to deal with the typical symptoms of relegation from the second to the third tier in German football: 26 players left the squad in the summer with 20 coming in, including several from the youth teams. The only players from last season's KSC squad in the starting eleven against Wehen were striker Oskar Zawada and talented midfielder Florent Muslija. The latter played almost exclusively for the U19 team last term.
The youth teams at KSC have produced a number of big names in German football in the past. In the 1990s, Oliver Kahn and Mehmet Scholl began their careers at KSC before moving on to the record champions in Munich. And Jens Nowotny, Bayer 04 captain for many years, also came from the youth set-up at Karlsruher SC and he was bossing the defence when Karlsruher last reached the final of the DFB Cup. Under head coach Winfried Schäfer, KSC lost 1-0 to FC Kaiserslautern in 1996. Karlsruher SC are still renowned in German football for their success in youth development - and that is almost certain to remain the case.
KSC are an attractive, and yet tough opponent for the first round of the Cup. The team from Baden have played more competitive matches than the Werkself with four games in the league already under their belts. And the quality of the squad is among the best in the third division. If the new team starts to gel quickly and doesn't drop too many points in the league matches then it would be reasonable to expect there will only be one year before Karlsruher SC return to the second division.
A simple approach to sport with games, fun and a highlight at the end: Bayer 04 organised a very special training session for 40 participants aged between six and 27 in cooperation with the Football Association of the Middle Rhine (FVM). At the day of action for women and girls with disabilities at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre, many of the participants gained their first experience of football.
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On Saturday, 28 March, the lights will go out again at the BayArena from 20:30 pm to 21:30. As in previous years, Bayer 04 once again take part in the WWF Earth Hour campaign under the motto "We're switching off" as the club wants to set a collective example for more climate and environmental protection together with people, cities and companies around the world.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen are bringing back Kerim Alajbegovic, who joined Red Bull Salzburg in the summer of 2025. The Bundesliga club activated the buy-back option in the contract with the Bosnia international, who has enjoyed great success at the Austrian top-flight club since the start of the current season. Alajbegovic moved to Salzburg from the Leverkusen U19s last year. The 1.86-metre forward has signed a five-year contract at Leverkusen with a start date of 1 July 2026.
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Less than a year ago, Kerim Alajbegovic moved from the Bayer 04 U19s to Austrian top-flight club FC Red Bull Salzburg. The forward’s development since then has been impressive. In 36 matches, including in the UEFA Europa League, the 18-year-old has scored 14 goals. In the summer, Alajbegovic, now a Bosnia international, will return to Leverkusen - and thus not only achieve the next milestone still early in his career, but also enrich the Werkself squad with his footballing versatility and determination.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have extended the contract with forward Nathan Tella ahead of schedule. The versatile 26-year-old, who can be deployed as a right winger, false nine or left winger, has penned a new contract to 30 June 2031. Tella joined the Werkself from Championship club Southampton in 2023. His previous contract ran to the summer of 2028.
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