The line-up is not only unusual but also reads like a Who's Who from the recent Werkself past. Bernd Schneider, Oliver Neuville, Simon Rolfes, Markus Happe, Boris Zivkovic and Marko Babic – honorary captains, Champions League finalists, crowd favourites, famous names in the history of the Black and Reds. They will all be wearing Bayer 04 shirts again on 2 December for the veterans game against Borussia Dortmund. As with the last match against FC Köln ahead of the Bundesliga derby, this meeting with Dortmund, kicking off at 13.30 CET at the Haberland Stadium, will be broadcast live on Facebook.
"We have an especially illustrious line-up for the game against BVB," said Dirk Dreher, general manager of the Veterans team, "It's incredible if you count up all the international caps the lads collected during their professional careers." And Dortmund are also likely to appear with a number of familiar faces – in the last fixture between the two teams a year ago their eleven included Frank Mill, David Odonkor and Knut Reinhardt – , so a visit to the Haberland Stadium will definitely serve to whet the appetite ahead of the Bundesliga clash against Borussia Dortmund (kick-off, 15.30 CET). Bayer 04 and Borussia will play a 60-minute game before watching the pros match at the BayArena.
Friday in Maastricht
The game against the black and yellows of Borussia will be the final match of the year and this Friday sees the final away trip in 2017 for the Leverkusen Old Boys with a visit to Holland. The veterans are in action in against their opposite numbers at Maastricht at 17.30 CET. The game has been organised by former Bayer 04 striker Erik Meijer who is the attacking coach at Maastricht. Afterwards the first team have a Jupiler League fixture against Helmond Sport in the second tier of Dutch football.
In mid-August, the Werkself will set off on a four-day trip to England to play their final two friendly matches of the 2026/27 pre-season against Premier League clubs Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United. The match in Nottingham against the Tricky Trees is on Wednesday 12 August at 20:45 CEST (19:45 BST) at the City Ground. The game against the Magpies in Newcastle is on Saturday 15 August at 16:00 CEST (15:00 BST) at the atmospheric St James’ Park. Details on ticket sales for both matches.
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Black and Red talent development at the highest level – even off the pitch: Apprentices Jule Suermann, Leandra Bellia and Julia Niederheide have successfully completed their two- or three-year apprenticeships at the club. Bayer 04 honoured the trio at the BayArena on Tuesday.
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The Werkself return tomorrow, Tuesday 14 July (from 11:00 CEST at the BayArena; live stream on bayer04.de, the Bayer 04 app and YouTube), with new head coach Carles Martínez leading his first training session as part of the Bayer 04 set-up. His coaching team comprises a mix of new and long-standing colleagues.
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The Germany U19 team were beaten 2-0 by record champions Spain in the final of the U19 European Championship in Wales. Bayer 04 players Montrell Culbreath and Francis Onyeka (on loan at SV 07 Elversberg) were in the starting line-up and played the full 90 minutes.
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