"Melissa has consistently fought her way back from serious injury and is a real role model on and off the pitch. Her great loyalty to the club is impressive. We are all the more delighted that, with her vast experience, she will continue to play an important role in our team in the coming season," said Bayer 04 Women sporting director Achim Feifel. "When she recently made a return to the starting XI, she proved once again that we can rely on her at all times."
Despite suffering setbacks through a number of injury-related absences since arriving at Bayer 04 from 1. FFC Frankfurt nine years ago, Friedrich has made 102 competitive appearances (four goals). After they were relegated from the Bundesliga in 2017, she helped the Werkself achieve promotion at the first time of asking the following season. In the 2024/25 campaign, she had to make up a training deficit in the Hinrunde, but then went on to make four appearances in the Rückunde, three of them in the starting XI.
"I'm really looking forward to my tenth year at Bayer 04. It's always something special for me to play for this club, which has a special place in my heart," said Friedrich: "I'm happy that I'm fit, I want to support the team as best I can and play my part in another successful season."
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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Ticket sales for another Bayer 04 Women's home game have begun. Fans can now purchase tickets for the match against SGS Essen at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on Saturday, 22 November. The latest information at a glance.
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It took 120 minutes, but once again Bayer 04 produced a late goal to win their DFB Pokal second-round tie away at Paderborn on Wednesday. “Same as always” was the line in Bild in homage to the 2023/24 double-winning season. With Jeanuel Belocian making his first start in over a year and Ibrahim Maza netting his first Werkself goal to secure a place in the last 16, Jonas Hofmann is eager to “take the positive feeling” into the next round.
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A DFB Pokal thriller that had it all - including a positive outcome from a Bayer 04 perspective. After a goalless and uneventful first half, the second round tie at SC Paderborn 07 really took off: Following a red card for the second division side, Grimaldo scored to give Bayer 04 a 1-0 lead but Paderborn levelled before the end of normal time. The home side then turned the game round at 2-1 in extra time, before Quansah, Maza and Garcia scored for the Werkself to make it 4-2 to seal a place in the Round of 16.
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