The date is 7 Match 1981. The Bayer 04 team have not for twelve games and are slipping ever closer to the drop zone. Level on points with 1860 Munich, the threat of relegation is looming at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. And now second-placed Bayern Munich are the visitors. Everyone who was there will remember the goals, the first hat-trick for one Bayer 04 player and that was Arne Larsen Ökland. But also our phantom goal in the same match. Watch the video for three minutes of match highlights in the 3-0 home win plus excerpts from a great interview with the star of the match. By the way: An 18-year-old goalkeeper from Berlin came to Leverkusen two days later for a trial training session. His name: Rüdiger Vollborn.







And Bayern Munich once again, 16 years later. Bayer 04 are in the running for the league title in the first year under Christoph Daum. Bayern visit the BayArena as league leaders with a five-point lead so the Werkself are under pressure to perform. The usual front two, Ulf Kirsten and Erik Meijer, are on the bench due to slight knocks. Markus Feldhoff is the only Leverkusen striker and he becomes the matchwinner with three goals. The atmosphere at the stadium is fantastic. And it was before kick-off too when our home end presented the best fan choreography in a German stadium. The video shows highlights of the 5-2 win against Bayern.

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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