Willi Korth moved under the Bayer Cross for the 1978/79 season. In his first year at Leverkusen he was part of the Bundesliga promotion team but only made seven appearances as a substitute. It was even worse for him in his second season at the Werkself. He didn't play a single minute for Bayer 04 in the first campaign in the Bundesliga. So Korth decided to return to Essen.
He remained true to Essen from 1980 to 1991 and was a crowd favourite as defender. When he started his long runs he was greeted with a drawn out cry of ‘Williiiiiiii’ at the Uhlenkrug Stadium. In 2008 Willi Korth was voted into the all-time Oberliga team of the last 30 years at Schwarz-Weiß and even now he is an ETB legend.
After his playing career ended, Willi stayed at his ETB (Essener Turnerbund Schwarz-Weiß e.V.) as head of the Uhlenkrug commercial company and as a board member before he had to retire due to health reasons.
Dear Willi, I wish you all the best on your 70th birthday. Enjoy the celebrations and remain fit and healthy.
Bayer 04 started the new season on 20 July 1950. To the applause from almost 2,000 spectators, the Werkself stepped onto the pitch at the Am Stadtpark stadium and the season target was clear to the supporters: finally achieve promotion to the Oberliga West. Under the direction of new coach Raymond Schwab, who brought one of his Essen players with him in the shape of Karl-Heinz Spikofski, the team did a couple of laps. Coach Schwab gave a speech in front of all the fans where he clearly imparted his request for calm in the stands and he said he hated nothing more than heckling or laughing when mistakes are made. He hoped the Bayer 04 supporters would follow his advice.
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Horst Knauf was born in Cologne on 16 August 1960. As a teenager he played for PSV Köln before signing for the Bayer 04 Leverkusen U19s as a talented midfielder in 1976. He made the move up from the second team to the Bundesliga squad in 1980. Over the following three years he played 39 Bundesliga games and scored two goals. Above all in the difficult 1981/82 season for the Werkself with the play-off games against Kickers Offenbach, he played a big part in saving Bayer 04 with 21 appearances. But under the new coach Dettmar Cramer he rarely made a start and he decided to move on.
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Holger Aden was born in Hamburg on 25 August 1965. He learned all about playing football and, above all, scoring goals at the two Hamburg clubs Niendorfer TSV and TSV DuWo 08 Hamburg. After progression from the youth teams, he played for other Hamburg clubs. One after the other he appeared for Concordia Hamburg, Altona 93 and SC Norderstedt. The centre-forward regularly found the back of the opposition net. He scored 22 goals for SC Norderstedt in the 1988/89 season.
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Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz in the GDR on 26 September 1976. He displayed his talent for football at a young age. After his family moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt, now called Chemnitz, he started playing for BSG Motor ‘Fritz Heckert’ Karl-Marx-Stadt where he constantly continued to develop his ability on the pitch. From year seven he went to the children and youth sports college and there he received systematic support in sport that led, against the background of his increasing ability, to a move to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt. At the age of 16, he had to take a six-month break due to growing pains, but then there was no stopping Michael after that.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of August. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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