Birthday boy of the month 1: Andreas Neuendorf turns 50

Reiner Calmund brings him to Bayer 04 in 1994. When he comes into the Bayer dressing room for the first time as a brand-new professional player and seeks out a place in front of a locker we say to him: "Lad, you can't sit there, that's Bernd Schuster's place!" Andreas provides a cheeky response and with his Berlin lip says: "Then he'll have to find a new place to sit!"

At his first training camp in 1994 he is the first and also only one I know who orders 'cola' at lunch and shows everybody else in the squad that he's doing his own thing. The combative and hard-running midfielder only makes five Bundesliga appearances in his first season but his cheeky approach to every training session shows why Calli brought him to Leverkusen.

how the nickname 'Zecke' came about

A year later, Andreas is bitten by a tick when he goes for a run in the forest. He spends three days in hospital due to blood poisoning and then he is welcomed back to the team by Ulf Kirsten and called 'Zecke' (tick). Since then everybody just calls him Zecke.

In three and a half years from 1994 to December 1997 he only makes 44 appearances the Werkself but he is a very important part of the Bayer dressing room with his jocular manner. After a contract extension at Bayer 04 he goes out on loan to Hertha in his home town of Berlin in January 1998.

After two and a half years at Hertha, Reiner Calmund gets him to return to Bayer 04. He reluctantly follows the call under the Cross and is thereby one of very few players who have found their way to Leverkusen twice.

After a disappointing year for him and just seven games for the Black and Reds he returns to Hertha Berlin and is happy to play in his hometown for the next six years. In his first training session, the Berlin kit man provides him with a training top with his nickname Zecke on it as a joke. That gives him the idea of following the Brazilians and having his own nom de plume printed on his shirt for Bundesliga matches but the DFB put a stop to that. Only the name on your ID is allowed on shirts. That takes him to the Berlin passport office. There he can only have his nom de plume of Zecke entered on his ID card if he really is an artist. He takes the tip from the official seriously: "Just go and paint a few pictures and sell them!" So, Zecke picks up paint and brushes, paints lines, circles and squares on his watercolour block and gives it the title of 'Sad face'. And because he doesn't have anything to clean the brushes with he just uses another sheet and gives it the title of 'Scribble'. The pictures are auctioned for a good cause. And that is enough to see him recognised as an artist and allows his nom de plume to be entered in his ID and from the 2002/2003 season he has that name printed on his shirt.

crazy hair, snappy patter

From 2001 to 2007 he becomes a crowd favourite with Hertha fans with his style of play, his down-to-earth manner and is at times crazy hairdos and snappy patter.

The 32-year-old joins FC Ingolstadt in the Regional League South the 2007/2008 season. He is promoted to Bundesliga 2 with the Bavarians and then relegated again. After three years his yearning for his home town is again too much. He rejoins Hertha Berlin but mainly plays for the reserves in the last four years of his career before moving on to be a coach. At BSC Preußen he wins the state league championship straightaway. After a year with senior teams he moves on to the youth set-up at his favourite club.

From 2015 he coached different Hertha youth teams, became the head coach of the U23s and in 2021 he was assistant coach alongside Pal Dardai with the Hertha first team. In November 2021 he and the head coach are let go but since January 2023 the club legend Andreas 'Zecke' Neuendorf together with Benjamin Weber has been in charge of the sporting side of the second tier club.

Dear Zecke, many happy returns on your 50th! Stay as you are and above all remain healthy. Enjoy your birthday!