Bayer 04 coach Dettmar Cramer took a few risks in the 1983/84 season when he went into the new campaign with a 20-year-old, yours truly, and the 18-year-old Andreas Nagel. Neither of us had played in the Bundesliga before. Over the next five years, Andreas mostly sat on the bench. He only made one appearance for the Werkself in the Bundesliga. On 12 October 1985, I had to be substituted after a collision with the Dortmund centre forward Horst Hrubesch on 80 minutes. After carrying on for a few minutes the impaired vision was too much. An eye specialist later diagnosed a bruised eyeball. Andi came on for the last ten minutes to help us secure a 1-1 draw. A week later he made his one and only appearance in goal for a full match in a DFB Pokal tie at SpVgg Plattling and he kept a clean sheet. We went through to the next round after 2-0 win.
Unfortunately, Andi's time at Leverkusen was associated with two nasty injuries. He suffered two broken hands within a short space of time: First in the summer of 1986 and then again immediately after recovering from the first fracture. He was on the bench once or twice in the Bundesliga in the UEFA Cup winning season of 1987/88. At the end of the season he signed for Hannover 96 but only played for the second team there. His last club was FC Gütersloh where he played 87 games in six years.
During his time in Leverkusen, he trained to be an industrial management assistant at the Bayer Works. After retiring he studied business administration and has worked for the DFL for many years, now as the director for sport and youth. He also volunteers on the board of the Robert Enke foundation.
Dear Andi, many happy returns on turning 60. Stay healthy and have a good one.
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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