30 years on the European stage

Christian Schreier and goals – that always went together. "Yes, I knew exactly where the goal was," said the now 57-year-old with a smile. 106 Bundesliga goals for Bayer 04, VfL Bochum and Fortuna Düsseldorf was scored in 331 appearances. "I bagged one in every third game." At Bayer 04 the total in the league was 63 in 203 games and outstanding achievement for somebody who was converted from the striker to a defensive midfield player at Leverkusen under coach Eric Ribbeck. Schreier could score from anywhere: with his right or left foot, with his head, from the penalty spot, in a goalmouth scramble as well as from long-range.

And, as he not only always knew to look after himself, was good with his feet and had the constitution of an ox he earned the nickname of 'Hacki' at Bayer 04. That was primarily a reminder of the former Mönchengladbach Germany international Hacki Wimmer, a real dynamo who made himself indispensable as the dogsbody of the great Günter Netzer. "They gave me that name as I always like to backheel the ball."

He scored a very special goal for Bayer 04 in that spectacular manner. On the last match day of the season in 1985/86 the Werkself needed a point away to Schalke to secure a place in European football for the first time in the club's history. However, in the windswept and rain-soaked Park Stadium in Gelsenkirchen, the match started terribly for Leverkusen in general and Schreier in particular: with only seven minutes on the clock Schreier received the ball in a central position 30 yards in front of his own goal. He instinctively wanted to play the ball back to goalkeeper Rüdiger Vollborn but the shot-stopper had already come out and was unable to prevent a rather strange own goal.

Backheel to happiness

The day did take the desired course even though it did not look at all promising when Schalke went 2-0 up just after the break. Herbert Waas pulled a goal back and with 15 minutes to play Christian Schreier scored again – this time in the right goal with a backheel. "I can still see it today the way the ball rolled across the slippery pitch and the Schalke keeper Walter Junghans was only able to get his hand to it behind the line." Schreier had gone through a complete range of emotions within a short space of time as the early error was wiped out. "That was extremely unusual," he said. The match report in the Rheinische Post referred to Schreier under the headline "From beggar to king."

The much celebrated 2-2 draw meant Bayer 04 what in European competition in the following season. And who else but Christian Schreier could write their names in the history books as the first goalscorer in a European game on 17 September 1986? As two is as good as one, Hacki did not rest on his laurels rather scored two goals in the first 20 minutes in a 4-1 win at Kalmar FF in Sweden - first with a header from a pinpoint cross from Cha Bum-kun and then from the penalty spot after a foul on Herbert Waas. Cha and Falko Götz netted the other two goals for the Werkself in the first appearance on the European stage.

Some fans hitchhiked

Premier Inn Kalmar applied to the fans as well as the Werkself. Around 300 Bayer 04 supporters travelled to the south Swedish port. 60 of them completed a 40-hour coach journey and 150 went under their own steam – some by car and others hitchhiking – an arduous adventure indeed. True pioneers one and all.