The Werkself training ground was less busy on Monday morning. Heiko Herrlich and his fellow coaches had ten less first team players available due to the international break: Julian Brandt, Benjamin Henrichs and Bernd Leno are away with Germany, Julian Baumgartlinger, Aleksandar Dragovic (both Austria), Admir Mehmedi (Switzerland), Kevin Kampl (Slovenia) and Charles Aránguiz (Chile) are also with their national squads. The same applies to Jonathan Tah (Germany U21s) and Kai Havertz plus the two U19 youth players Atakan Akkaynak and Sam Schreck (Germany U19s). Joel Pohjanpalo, who had been called up by Finland, is ruled out after his hip injury suffered on Friday. He has started his rehab programme at the Werkstatt.
Heiko Herrlich almost missed the first training session in the international break. The Bayer 04 head coach had been in Hanover since Sunday with most of the other head coaches of Bundesliga clubs. The DFB held a coaches meeting on Monday with Germany coach Joachim Löw and DFB sporting director Horst Hrubesch plus the coaches of the Germany youth sides and national team manager Oliver Bierhoff also taking part. Herrlich did return to Leverkusen in time and was able to start preparations for this Thursday's friendly against VfL Bochum at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium at 15.00 CET.
For the open session in the afternoon there was an additional VIP on the training ground. A familiar face in Paulo Rink visited his former stomping ground – the 44-year-old German Brazilian played for Leverkusen from 1997 to 2002 scoring 34 goals in 119 appearances.
He was happy to take time out for a chat with bayer04.de: "I watched the game against Hoffenheim on Saturday and I’m always happy to be back here," declared the former striker who also earned 13 caps for Germany. "The time at Bayer 04 was the best part of my career in Germany. We had a great team, played in the Champions League and we always in and around the top of the Bundesliga. And both my boys were born here," said Rink. Except for the 1999/2000 season. "The story with Unterhaching still hurts today," he said. Rink is now actively involved in politics as a councillor in his home town of Curitiba. He always tries to get to Germany once a year. "I've lots of friends in Leverkusen and always like being here. It's great to see my old team-mates again like Hans-Peter Lehnhoff and Ulf Kirsten. And Harald Wohner (support staff and kit man) who is still working at Bayer 04 at the age of 82," said Rink.
As vice-president of a Brazilian fourth division club he also used the visit to his old home ground for other reasons: The Veterans team of his club is currently playing friendlies in Germany and are due to visit Leverkusen on Thursday. "The squad is mainly made up of business people. I'd like to show them where I used to play and train. But also show them how the club Bayer 04 Leverkusen is organised," said Rink who met up with Dirk Dreher on Monday to arrange a game against the Bayer 04 Veterans. The match will be played on Friday (15.00 CET). That will give him the opportunity to be back on the pitch with Hans-Peter Lehnhoff, Ulf Kirsten and Co.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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