"With this step, we are looking to the future in women's football and taking a more structured and professional approach," explained Thomas Eichin, head of the Youth and Women sections. "With the new position of the sporting director we are filling the link between the youth teams and the Bundesliga squad and we want to increasingly promote young talent from our own ranks and take a longer term perspective of the squad. Achim Feifel, with his years of experience in youth and women's Football meets all the requirements for that. He's been at our club for three years, was regularly in touch with our junior teams as a Bundesliga head coach and he also has a very good network outside of the club."
Feifel has been head coach of the Werkself Women for three seasons. In his first campaign, the 57-year-old took his team to tenth place in the FLYERALARM Women's Bundesliga following the promotion season and the team also progressed to the semi-finals of the DFB Cup. The work of the football coach paid dividends the following year – the team achieved their best position in the league in the history of the club with a fifth-place finish. In the 2021/22 season, his side just missed out on getting to the cup final with defeat on penalties after extra time; and they finished seventh in the Bundesliga.
In his new role as sporting director, Feifel will be responsible for squad planning and development and scouting for the Bundesliga Women, the U23 Women's team plus the U17, U16 and U13 sides. "I'm very much looking forward to the new challenge and it is extremely important for our women's football section in my opinion. I will be taking on a future orientated area where we want to make structural developments in all areas to remain competitive. We want to discover young talent and develop our target of establishing a position in the top third of the Bundesliga table," said Feifel. He summed up his three years as head coach of the Bayer 04 Women's team: "I had an extremely positive time overall. I was incredibly well received at the club, felt supported at all times and always felt confidence in me. Working with the players and the whole team gave me a lot of pleasure."
Robert de Pauw (pictured above with Linda Schöttler) has been confirmed as Feifel's successor. The Dutch title-winning coach, who has signed for two seasons to 30 June 2024, won the top-flight in women's football in the Netherlands last term with FC Twente Enschede lifting the title in the Pure Energie Eredivisie Vrouwen. The 40-year-old was previously head coach of the Netherlands U17 Women's team as well as assistant coach to the female U23 and U16 national teams as well as the Achilles '29 Women's team (Eredivisie) and he also worked as Academy and Youth coach at NEC Nijmegen. De Pauw, who speaks English, German, French and Spanish in addition to Dutch, has a UEFA A licence.
"I'm very happy that we have found an ambitious and qualified coach in Robert de Pauw. He brings international experience with him from his previous jobs and he knows how to build and lead a young and hungry team," said Thomas Eichin about the qualified social worker. General manager Linda Schöttler added: "We are convinced we can continue the positive development of recent seasons and we look forward to a successful future."
For de Pauw, the post at Leverkusen is "a very attractive assignment. I'm very happy about the confidence shown in me and the opportunity to work at a top club with a young and ambitious team. It is a challenge I will approach with great motivation." De Pauw will begin his new role at the start of training on 4 July.
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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