
For the Black and Red U14s, the derby at FC Köln marked a continuation of recent reults. The team under coaches Mirko Casper/Florian Blaschyk completed the fourth match in the new Youth Cup season without losing a point. "The lads were fully focussed from the start and created a number of goalscoring opportunities," said a satisfied coach Casper. The score was 1-0 at half-time.
And in the second half, "we continued to defend well and created lots of chances," added Casper. "As a result, we deserved to win by that margin in the end." Leverkusen beat the Rhineland rivals 4-1.
The Leverkusen U12 team celebrated a successful return after a weekend without a match. The team under coaching duo Pierre de Wit/Maximilian Straub clocked up a 10-1 win against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen at Kurtekotten.
The hosts scored seven of the ten goals between 18 and 36 minutes into the match. Our individual superiority was evident in this phase. The lads producing great moves," said de Wit. The U12s are away to Rot-Weiß Essen next Saturday, 3 October (kick-off: 11.00 CEST).
The Bayer 04 U10s had a round robin tournament in Frankfurt at the weekend. The Black and Reds lost 4-1 to Eintracht in the first game and 2-1 in the second. That was followed by a 5-0 victory and a 1-1 draw against Viktoria Aschaffenburg. All the games were 25 minutes long.
"We are happy with the performances. There is a good development on the pitch and were gaining more and more security and accuracy in passing," said Alexander Nuss who is jointly responsible for the U10s with Marvin Schmitz. "Due to our still in provable conversion rate we were only able to win one of our four games. We'll have to work on that in the coming weeks."
Arminia Bielefeld v Bayer 04 U19 0-1 (M)
Bayer 04 U17 v Arminia Bielefeld 6-0 (M)
Wuppertaler SV v Bayer 04 U15 1-3 (M)
FC Köln v Bayer 04 U14 1-4 (M)
Bayer 04 U13 v MSV Duisburg 12-0 (M)
Bayer 04 U12 v RW Oberhausen 10-1 (M)
Schalke 04 v Bayer 04 U11 10-3 (RSC)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Bayer 04 U10 6-2 (LV)
Bayer 04 U10 v Viktoria Aschaffenburg 6-1 (LV)
Bayer 04 U9 v FC Köln (RSC)
Ford Niehl U9 v Bayer 04 U8 (M)
(M) = League | (F) = Friendly | (RSC) = Revier Sport Cup | (LV) = Round Robin


Bayer 04 Leverkusen have appointed Carles Martínez Novell as the new head coach. The 42-year-old Spaniard worked for FC Toulouse in the French Ligue 1 until the end of the season. Martínez finished last term in ninth place with the club from the south of France. He will take over the Werkself on 1 July 2026 and has signed a contract to 30 June 2028. Martínez, whose contract with Toulouse expires at the end of the month, succeeds Kasper Hjulmand at Leverkusen, who is leaving the club after one season.
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Welcome to Leverkusen, Carles Martínez Novell. Bayer 04 have appointed the 42-year-old Spaniard as the new head coach on a contract to 2028. Martínez most recently worked for FC Toulouse in the French Ligue 1 until the end of the season. He previously spent four years at Barcelona's legendary academy La Masia in his home city. Bayer04.de introduces Martínez in more detail.
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Bayer 04 plans for the 2026/27 pre-season continue to take shape. The Werkself will kick off the new season in mid-July with the return to the training ground. The highlight will be the official season opener on 8 August at the BayArena, including a friendly against La Liga club Sevilla. Friendlies in Germany will take the team to neighbouring Monheim, Offenbach and Jena.
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Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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