“I will never forget this day,” said the happy Verena Kümper (30). Verena and her partner Alexander (33) both said yes in face masks in the centre circle at the BayArena on Thursday. “It was great to be on the pitch. We put the coronavirus crisis out of our minds for that moment and just focused on each other.”
30 April is not only the date of the wedding of the Leverkusen couple but also the date of when they first met three years ago. The Kümpers got to know each other in Saarbrücken where they were working on their doctorates. At the end of April 2017 they came back from a walk in the Saarbrücken forest as a couple. Verena and Alexander have been living in the Leverkusen district of Opladen for the past year.
A lot has happened since then: The couple found out that Verena was pregnant just before Christmas in 2019. “We spoke to the registry office because we wanted to get married before the baby is born. And as soon as possible so that Verena can still get into her wedding dress,” explained Alexander with a smile. One of the first dates available was – fittingly – 30 April. The marriage venue: the BayArena. Plans were quickly put into action. Until the coronavirus pandemic put a spanner in the works.
The couple had to cancel their planned wedding ceremony in a restaurant on the Wupper and instead deal with the regulations for the wedding: Temperatures taken on the wedding day, face masks for the wedding vow, maintaining the social distance of 1.5 metres to the registrar. “On the wedding day itself we were able to concentrate on ourselves. The organisation of the event by BayArena+ ran smoothly; we were presented with a cake from the club,” said Verena Kümper.
The couple were linked to relatives from the ceremony, via a mobile phone on a tripod. That was followed by the obligatory wedding photos on the pitch – and the wedding couple were able to take off their face masks for the traditional kiss. All in all, Verena and Alexander Kümper were very happy with the wedding at a venue where Bundesliga football is played.
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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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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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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