He primarily played for the Bayer 04 Reserves and he made one 30-minute appearance for the first team. He came on as a substitute for Franco Foda on 64 minutes in the penultimate home game of the 1993/94 season against VfB Stuttgart.
After that season, he moved on to Hamburg to join FC St. Pauli. In his first season, he gained promotion to the Bundesliga with the Hamburg team. However, it was back to the second division after two years in Germany's top flight. He made a total of 181 appearances and scored four goals for St. Pauli.
After six years in Hamburg, he went to Turkey to play for Siirt Jetpa Spor in the Süper Lig. On returning to Germany he played for Jahn Regensburg, the Hamburg SV second team, Rot-Weiß Erfurt, Darmstadt 98 and Altona 93. He ended his playing career in 2008.
Stephan Hanke now turns 50. I wish you many happy returns and stay fit and healthy.
Here are TV highlights of the best moments for Stephan Hanke at Bayer 04.
Hans Sarpei was born on 28 June 1976 in Tema, Ghana, and came to Germany with his parents at the age of three, where he grew up in Cologne. Even before he was born, his mother and father worked in Hamburg in the import-export sector. There they met an older man who introduced them to German culture and supported them. Out of gratitude, Hans was later given his first name, although this man died before he was born. Hans comes from a sporting family; his older brother Edward and his nephews Hans Nunoo Sarpei and Kingsley Sarpei were or are also professional footballers.
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On 3 June 1953, Hans-Josef (‘Sepp’) Kretschmann became the fifth coach in the history of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Born in Allenstein, East Prussia, on 21 March 1902, the football coach first studied to become a teacher before later switching to football. He took over the Werkself from Franz Strehle, under whom the team twice managed to stay in the 1st Oberliga West. However, Strehle did not extend his contract in Leverkusen after these two very successful years.
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After promotion to Bundesliga North 2 in the summer of 1975, Bayer 04 are fighting relegation just eight months later. The club expects full commitment from everyone in this precarious situation. Promotion coach Manfred Rummel is to give up his main job as a teacher at the Mülheim special school and become a full-time coach at Bayer 04. The coach, who is very popular with the team, does not see himself in a position to fulfil the club's request. Despite a 2-0 home win against SpVgg Erkenschwick, Manfred Rummel is put on gardening leave by "mutual agreement".
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Bayer 04, already been promoted to the 1st Oberliga West, played friendly after friendly in the second half of May 1951. And that continued throughout the following month.
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Jacek Krzynowek was born on 15 May 1976 in Kamiensk, Poland, and grew up as a typical country boy. He spent his childhood less in structured training sessions and more on simple pitches, where he spent hours playing football with older boys. He realised early on that he had exceptional shooting power and enormous stamina. But for a long time, he didn't appreciate just how much talent he had. While others dream of a great career, professional football initially seems like a distant world to him that he only knows from television.
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