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.
Heiko Scholz was born on 7 January 1966 in Görlitz. His first club as a youth player was Dynamo Görlitz. From there, he moved up to the sports school in Dresden and played in the youth teams at SG Dynamo Dresden from 1978-1982. Not considered good enough, Scholle, as he was nicknamed, had to leave the sports school to play his last two youth years at ISG Hagenwerder. Via BSG Chemie Leipzig and 1.FC Lokomotive Leipzig, who Heiko won the DDR Pokal with in 1987 and he also reached the European Cup Winners' Cup final (a 1-0 defeat against Ajax), his path finally led him back to his favourite club, Dynamo Dresden. For one million Deutschmarks, the highest transfer fee ever paid for a player in the former GDR, he moved from Lok Leipzig to the capital of Saxony in 1990.
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Stefan Kießling was born on 25 January 1984 in Lichtenfels, Franconia. Even as a young boy, he spent countless hours on the football pitches of his home town, chasing after the ball and dreaming of playing football. His parents supported him, but they bring him up in a down-to-earth manner - hard work, honesty and modesty are values that characterise him from an early age. His talent became apparent early on, but his ambition was even more striking. Kießling always wants to improve, wants to give more than others.
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On Sunday 26 January 1936, the local derby between relegation-threatened BV Wiesdorf and league leaders SSV ‘Bayer’ Leverkusen took place in the first district league of the Rhein-Wupper district. On the old BV Wiesdorf pitch, where the Leverkusen job centre is today, 1,800 spectators gather to watch the match.
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It is Friday, 31 January 1986, the derby in Cologne is coming up and we're full of confidence after the home win against Hamburg SV a week earlier, having turned a 2-0 deficit at the break into a 3-2 victory. In particular, the Greek amateur player Minas Hantzidis, who came on as a half-time substitute, turned the game around. Two goals from Bum-kun Cha and a penalty from Christian Schreier gave us two important points in the battle for a UEFA Cup place. We are one point behind the North Germans in fifth place in the table, six points ahead of our neighbours from Cologne.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in Bayer 04 history from the month of January. It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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