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.
They narrowly missed out on the title in the spring of this year as they enjoyed their most successful season to date under the Bayer Cross. Now they want to build on that success. In an interview ahead of today's start of the new season in the VBL Club Championship by WOW (live on the Bayer 04 app from 18:00 CEST), the two Bayer 04 eSports players and cousins Marc and Sean Landwehr talk about the organisational changes to the VBL CC and their everyday lives as professional gamers and they also give pro tips for the new EA FC 26.
Show moreA Black and Red player in the U20 World Cup final in Chile. Alejo Sarco and Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 in the semi-final on Wednesday night. Morocco, who knocked out France, now await in the final on Sunday night.
Show moreHere we go! The new season of the VBL Club Championship by WOW starts on Thursday, 16 October. The games can be seen live on the Bayer 04 app and on the club Twitch channel. Bayer04.de presents an overview of the first opponents for the Leverkusen eSports team in the new season.
Show moreThe autumn holidays attracted a host of Bayer 04 fans to the BayArena on Tuesday, 14 October. An open training session for the Werkself in the morning ended with the players taking time out for selfies and autograph requests from the 160 or so fans in attendance. During a children's press conference organised by Barmenia Gothaer, Werkself player Arthur and Kristin Kögel from the Bayer 04 Women's team fielded questions posed by the youngsters. Meanwhile, a trio of young players from the Leverkusen U19 squad put a smile on everyone's faces at a meet & greet event. And fans enjoyed a range of exciting activities at the Fanwelt.
Show more