Reiner Fehl has been providing advice to parents for the Werkself since the autumn of last year. Before he started work at the Performance Centre, Reiner was well aware of the tasks relating to the Black and Red talents as he had already worked closely with the management at Kurtekotten during his time as a sports and biology teacher at the technical college in Opladen. Fehl is primarily responsible at Bayer 04 for communication between the parents and the staff at the Performance Centre.
The staff in the youth section at Bayer 04 have organised a range of workshops for the players at Kurtekotten for several years. For example, before Easter, Klaus Schenkmann trained the U12s and U13s plus their coaches in handling social media. After the Easter break there will be further workshops for the Black and Red youth players:
The management of the Bayer 04 youth teams have recently introduced a concept for workshops for the 200 or so parents of the youth players. "We want to provide them with optimum support on the relationship between sport and education," said Fehl.
That starts on Saturday, 10 April with the lecture on ‘Wounds and injuries in football – what parents need to know and what they can do’. This is initially designed to be tried out on the legal guardians of the U12 and U13 players. If there is a keen interest then it will be extended to other groups of parents. The workshops will be run by Bayer 04 physiotherapists Jonas Schmitt and Florian Kroder. The latter explained the content: "For us, it is primarily about communicating basic information and tips on possible injury scenarios. We will also explain and offer support for at home.”
Another aspect, according to Kroder, the process of growth with children and teenagers. The physiotherapist: "With some youngsters there are problems with growths under the kneecap. Unfortunately, very few people know about scenarios like that."
The parents of the Leverkusen U12 and U13 players will receive an email with information on the application process for the first workshop from the management of the Kurtekotten Performance Centre. Fehl is hoping there will be keen interest – and plenty of feedback: "I've been here since 1 September but, because of the lockdown, it has unfortunately not been possible to build up contact with the parents. We are looking forward to presenting a new offer with this first workshop, which is aimed at them."
The Bayer 04 Women's team coaches remain in place: The Werkself have extended the contract with assistant coach Remzi Kahraman by two years to 2027. The 30-year-old will continue to assist head coach Roberto Pätzold along with fellow assistant coach Friederike Mehring.
Show moreThe head coaches of the U16 to U19 youth teams at Bayer 04 welcome some new faces to the coaching staff for the 2025/26 campaign. Overview of new set-up.
Show moreThe Bayer 04 Women are enjoying their richly deserved summer break up to 23 June following the best Bundesliga season in the club’s history. Six weeks after last season’s final matchday at VfL Wolfsburg (1-3), head coach Roberto Pätzold will welcome his squad for the first training session at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre on Monday morning. There will be a break in the preseason from 20 July to 3 August before training resumes on Monday, 4 August.
Show moreThe Werkself summer timetable is taking shape. The team under head coach Erik ten Hag will play four friendlies following the training camp in Rio de Janeiro (14 to 24 July). Bayer 04 are away to VfL Bochum, Fortuna Sittard and Chelsea. Another friendly is planned for the season opener at the BayArena.
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