After a few weeks he decided to cross over the river Dhünn to the Stadtpark where he joined the youth set-up at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. He made his first appearance for the senior team at the age of 18 and he was a key player straightaway. The 'Lange’ (tall one), as he was known for his height of over six foot, was a defender solid in challenges and good in the air. His other strengths were his calm and fairness.
After the Second World War, he played in the first game and in the following years be became a reliable key player at Bayer 04. He wore the claret shirt of Bayer 04 over 500 times from 1945 to 1956. He wins promotion to the First Oberliga West with the Werkself in 1951, while working in the company health insurance fund at Bayer AG, and he ends his playing career at the age of 34 after a lot of knee injuries. But that's not the end of his connection with football. He gains a lot of merit as a long-standing board member of our club. He is the football chairman in 1960 – comparable to a sporting director today – and he played a significant part in building the team of the early 1960s. After internal disputes, he and his deputy Fredy Mutz, a long-standing goalkeeper in the 1950s, are voted off at the AGM. Five years later on 2 February 1969, he takes up the post again for another two years.
From 1971 he is a spectator at the stadium and training sessions and he accompanies the Bayer 04 first team to away games with his former teammates from the 1950s, particularly the European matches. Peter Berger passed away on 24 September 1999 at the age of 77 and a good part of the football history of Bayer 04 went with him. The 'Lange' would have been 100 years old on 8 August. A good reason to remember him.
Harry Gniech was born on 14 October 1951 in Leverkusen-Schlebusch. At the age of six, he joined SV Bayer 04, initially in the athletics section. The boy actually wanted to play football, but was only allowed to switch to the football team when he turned nine. Harry quickly established himself as a playmaker in midfield. Despite his talent, the path from the youth team to the first-team squad was a long one back then. In the 1973–74 season, his former U19 coach, Friedhelm Renno – who was by then in charge of Bayer 04’s first team – selected him for his first match with the professional squad.
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Henrique Adriano Buss, known as Henrique, was born on 14 October 1986 in Marechal Cândido Rondon, a town in the Brazilian state of Paraná. At the age of 13, he joined Coritiba FC and made the step up to the first team in 2006. Henrique helped the team gain promotion to the Brazilian top flight and then moved on to Palmeiras FC. After just five matches for his new club, the 1.85-metre-tall centre-back was signed by Barcelona in 2008 for ten million euros and loaned to Bayer 04 for one year for a fee of €400,000.
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Constant Djakpa was born on 17 October 1986 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He started playing football at the age of five. He took his first steps in professional football at Stella Club d’Adjamé, before moving on to Sogndal IL in Norway. His path eventually led him to Germany via the Romanian club Pandurii Târgu Jiu.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 from the month of October. It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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In the first week of October 1966, professional footballers decided to take an unusual step – they went on strike. They felt compelled to resort to this action, which was relatively uncommon until then, to give greater weight to their demands for fair pay. They reasoned that, with three draws, they were entitled to a bonus; at the very least, a points bonus of 75 Deutschmarks that was agreed before the start of the season.
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