Bayer 04 Leverkusen Tryouts & Club Guide: History, Stadium, Players, and More!

Explore the ultimate Bayer Leverkusen guide! Dive into detailed tryout processes, rich club history, iconic stadium tours, and profiles of players. Your comprehensive source for all things Bayer Leverkusen, for aspiring talents to seasoned fans.

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Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, Germany. The club competes in the Bundesliga, the top flight of German football.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Youth Development System

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Youth Academy

Our professional section and, in particular, our most important partner, Bayer AG have provided us with outstanding training facilities.

Youth development at Bayer 04 has been amongst the best in Germany for years. Thanks to the generous support of Bayer AG we have been able to create optimum conditions and infrastructure for our youth players. We are very proud of that. Bayer AG and their members of staff involved in this concept deserve huge thanks and great compliments.

Our junior teams will do all they can to be good ambassadors for Bayer through good performances and a sporting approach.

Our members of staff try to repay that through incredibly committed and qualified work with our youth players to fit in the philosophy of our club and Bayer AG.

This facility is something very special for all members of the Bayer 04 Academy. All members of the Academy are living up to the standards of conscious interaction, protective care and the knowledge that this facility is unique.

Top Level Playing Infrastructure

Optimum playing and training services are the be all and end all for working with talented young players. Therefore, Bayer 04 place great value on the pitches at the Academy always fulfilling the highest demands.

In 2012/13 the main pitch was fully renewed. Undersoil heating plus the upgrading of the pitch and turf raise it to the level of the first team.

The 10,000 square metre artificial pitch and the surrounding area treated with polytan products around the heading area were brought into use in May 2009. “Building on an elastic base and the mix of quartz sand and plastic granule at provide characteristics that are very close to natural grass and which also make it extremely durable,” said groundsman Peter Lützenkirchen about one of the most modern pitches.

Co-Op With First Division Team

The value of the youth section at the club is high in terms of club policy, finance and football.

The cooperation between the first team and the Performance Centre is harmonic, practical and meaningful. On the one hand, that is part of the concept at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Beyond that, is the fact that the decision-makers in individual departments have worked for a long time together in a positive way.

Special events at the Performance Centre , including national and international tournaments ,  matches, overseas tours, etc, are supported to the same extent as conceptual ideas. Even though the support of the first team is helpful in taking on a particularly talented youth player, there are dedicated contacts at the youth section (management area, head coach, assistant coach).

Bayer 04 sporting director Simon Rolfes (left, here with Performance Centre director Thomas Eichin) regularly keeps updated on the performance levels and planning at the Performance Centre. This applies particularly to the most talented players in the U19 and U17 squads. It is all about taking the shortest routes. Not by chance was Rolfes Head of Development and Youth at Bayer 04 before his appointment as sporting director.

That means talented prospects are again and again brought into training with the first-team to develop along the right lines early on with individual support.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Academy Training

They don’t just play football at the Academy. Bayer 04 aim to train technical and tactical ability while at the same time providing optimum condition training, particularly in terms of coordination.

As athleticism is becoming ever more important as a requirement for a football player there are two coaches that deal with this aspect in the youth development section. Thorsten Pachurka and Kai Braun pass on their knowledge to the young players who receive coordination and fitness training from the Under 8 level to ensure they are ready to deal with future challenges.

The improvement of running technique is of primary importance as efficient running saves a huge amount of energy that can be used better elsewhere.

30 to 60 minutes per session

Every player has to take their boots off twice a week. Running shoes and and dexterity are on the agenda and rich with various strengthening and stabilisation drills. And the recently installed coordination slalom tests the ability to climb and balance. One session lasts for 30 to 60 minutes leaving enough time to train with the ball.

The weighting of training content is related to age-specific guidelines. That means the Under 8s primarily train playing the game while the older age groups train more and more on the athletic elements. Under 8s and Under 9s train as teams but the size of the group reduces the higher the age group. That enables individual talent can be more efficiently developed.

Six-monthly diagnostics

The progress of each individual player is recorded exactly. As part of the performance tests, held every six months, sprint and lactate tests are carried out to identify any possible deficiencies that can be quickly remedied.

Of course, the ball is and remains the object of desire for the Bayer 04 youth players and that’s how it should be. But the players know very well that training with out the ball can also prove to be a great advantage for their overall development as a player. The enthusiasm that all of them show in fitness training makes it clear – Adrian is just on the third lap.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Targeted individual and team training plus balance games are designed to ensure all Bayer 04 youth players are developed to the full. At the same time, we hope that our most talented youth players develop quickly make the jump into our first team squad.

Our teams should always play attacking and successful, as well as technically good, football.

Developing the personality of our youth players is very significant. That includes:

  • A performance-related and self-motivated attitude to playing and training
  • Self-critical analysis with own performance and with the input of the coach
  •  A friendly attitude
  • The ability to share team spirit and get on with each other

All Bayer 04 youth teams should embody “Bayer 04 Leverkusen team spirit” and it should be led by the coaching and support staff.

In addition, it’s very important for us:

  • to make clear to our youth players that school and vocational education are a priority.
  • to play a leading role with the U19 and U17 teams in the youth Bundesliga and with the U15 and U14 teams at the highest levels possible.
  • to arrange interesting sporting and non-sporting experience through participation in international tournaments and tours.
  • to contribute to succeeding in all tournaments we take part in Germany and elsewhere in Europe through good performances and a friendly approach of our youth players, coaches and support staff. Tournaments are a key element in the development work at Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
  • to ensure close co-operation with our neighbouring clubs, all clubs we are in contact with, associations, all visitors and opponents.
  • to discover talented youth players in the region early and bring them to Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
  • that the management at Bayer 04 critically assess their work and youth football in general. The aim is to constantly improve it.
  • to maintain co-operation with Bayer AG and keep highlighting these close, important connections.
  • to be a stronger and more reliable partner for our junior partners and all supporters of our youth section.
  • that, with all the targeted support, fun and joy of playing football is of primary importance for our players and members of staff.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Academy Contact Information

Director of Performance Centre: Thomas Eichin
Office manager: Roman Klossek
Management assistant: Maximilian Straub

Contact

Phone: +49 (0)214 – 8660 – 341
Fax: +49 (0)214 – 8660 – 359
E-mail: [email protected]

Address

Otto-Bayer-Straße 2
51061 Köln

Academy new: https://www.bayer04.de/en-us/page/performance-centre#news



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Bayer 04 Leverkusen History

Employees of the German pharmaceutical business Bayer AG, whose headquarters are located in Leverkusen and from which the club derives its name, established the club in 1904. Bayer AG is the source of the club’s name. It was formerly the most well-known department of TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, which is a sports club whose members also compete in athletics, gymnastics, basketball, and a variety of other sports, including the RTHC Bayer Leverkusen (rowing, tennis and hockey).

The football department of Bayer 04 Leverkusen was split off from the rest of the sports club in 1999, and it is now its own distinct business, formally known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen GmbH. 1979 was the year that Bayer received their initial promotion to the Bundesliga, and they have remained in the Bundesliga ever since then. Both red and black have been used as the primary color for the club’s shirts in the past, and red and black stripes have also been used as home colors. The club’s primary colors are red and black.

A record in German football, Bayer Leverkusen has finished as the runner-up in the Bundesliga five times without ever winning the competition. Both the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Cup have been taken home by the club. In addition, Bayer came in second place in the UEFA Champions League in 2001–02, losing the championship game to Real Madrid by a score of 2–1. Their neighborhood competitors are 1 FC Köln.

Stadium

Since its opening in 1958, the Bay Arena in Leverkusen, which is located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, has served as the primary venue for football matches contested by Bayer 04 Leverkusen of the Bundesliga.

On March 30th, 2007, Bayer AG reached an agreement to increase the capacity of the stadium to more than 30,000 people. The construction work on the arena began in the close of 2007, and it is anticipated that it will be completed prior to the start of the 2009–10 season. On September 30, 2008, Bay Arena was chosen to be one of the nine locations that will be utilized during the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup. During that tournament, it would serve as the location for four group matches and one quarterfinal match.