Meet & greet: Children at Bayer 04 Football School meet Hofmann and Oermann

As with the previous meet & greet with the U19 players Ben Hawighorst, Jonah Berghoff and Ferdinand Pohl, many happy children gathered again in the ‘19nullvier Lounge’ at the BayArena. This time, the young footballers from the Bayer 04 Football School were able to put questions to two players from the Werkself senior squad.

In the hail of questions, forward Jonas Hofmann and defensive all-rounder Tim Oermann patiently had time for every question and quenched the young audience's thirst for knowledge with a good dose of humour. Hofmann, for example, was successfully asked to show his goal celebration, while Oermann laughingly explained: "When I score a goal, I'm usually overwhelmed and can't think about how to celebrate."  

Hofmann: "good atmosphere in the dressing room every day"

When asked why he moved to Leverkusen, Hofmann spoke about the then head coach Xabi Alonso: "He called me and told me how he would like to play football. I was so impressed by his philosophy and his title ambitions that I didn't hesitate for long." He is very happy at Bayer 04 and "always enjoys coming to training". The 33-year-old, who is a father himself and therefore well-practised in dealing with children's questions, added: "But everyone here is aware that this job is a great privilege. There's a good atmosphere in the dressing room every day because the players are happy to be able to play football here."

When asked about the best moment of his career, the forward named the match against Werder Bremen when Bayer 04 became champions of Germany on 14 April 2024: "The fans really went crazy then, it was very emotional." In the end, Hofmann had to think again about who his most combative team-mate is, but then came up with Exequiel Palacios, "because he just loves to defend with his South American grit".

Oermann Hat trick? "in training perhaps"

Defensive work is also Oermann's speciality - but because many questions revolved around special or emotional goals scored by the two, he, who currently has one professional goal to his name, often had to smile. When a child asked when he had last scored a hat-trick, the 22-year-old replied with a grin: "In training perhaps." But the defender also provided serious insights into his career and explained what convinced him to join Bayer 04 was "how the club promotes young players and how I can develop here. Of course, I also liked the way Bayer 04 plays football."

While Hofmann "hadn't played computer games for about 15 years", Oermann, who is eleven years younger, delighted some kids interested in gaming with the fact that he had "often played FIFA or Fortnite in his youth". At the end, the winter returnee explained the reason for his shirt number 15 to an inquisitive youngster: "Of course, I had to see which number was still available. I also had 14 at VfL Bochum, 5 at Sturm Graz and now it's 15."

After the Q&A session and a group photo, the children surrounded the two Werkself players to get signatures on jerseys, football boots, shin pads and much more. After Hofmann and Oermann fulfilled all the autograph requests, the young fans and their coaches set off on a joint tour of the BayArena with beaming faces - the early Easter surprise appears to have been a big success!