At the age of 16 he then joined the Kickers, trained with the first team as a youth player and he also worked in the offices at the Offenbach club as part of his apprenticeship. In November 1977, at the age of 17, he made his first-team debut. But he had to wait a while for his first goal. On matchday three in the 1978/79 season in the Bundesliga 2 South he opened the scoring for Offenbach on 20 minutes in their 3-2 defeat against Wormatia Worms.
After two and a half years at Kickers Offenbach, Rudi signed for 1860 Munich in the Bundesliga for the 1980/81 season. But his nine goals were unable to prevent the Lions from Munich being relegated. The following season Rudi really took off in Bundesliga 2. He was the top scorer with 37 goals. 1860 were unable to get promoted even with the goals from Völler. But he then made the next step in his career: Werder Bremen signed the pacy striker for the 1982/83 season.
In the next five years, Rudi scored 97 goals in 137 Bundesliga games for the North German side and in 1982 he made his first of 90 international appearances for Germany, was a runner-up at the 1986 World Cup and in 1987 he moved to Italy to play for AS Roma.
In 1990 he celebrated his biggest success in the Italian capital with Germany in winning the World Cup. A year later he secured his first club title – he won the Italian domestic cup competition with AS Roma in 1991. The same year saw them reach the UEFA Cup final where they lost to Inter Milan (0-2, 1-0).
After five successful years where Rudi Völler became a crowd favourite for the Rome side he moved on to France to play for Olympique Marseille. With the French club, he was the first German player to win the first UEFA Champions League, previously the European Cup, with a 1-0 victory against AC Milan.
The Bayer 04 boss Reiner Calmund succeeded in bringing Rudi to Leverkusen in 1994. In two years at Bayer 04 he played 62 Bundesliga games and scored 26 goals and he ended his great playing career on 21 May 1996 with a testimonial in front of a full house at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
Reiner Calmund took him under his wings from 1996: Rudi was the Bayer 04 sporting director for the next four years. In the autumn of 2000 he was the caretaker coach for Germany. Originally he was to be in charge until the contract of the then Bayer 04 coach Christoph Daum ran out in the summer of 2001. But that all changed with the affair involving the Werkself coach.
Rudi was the Germany coach for the next four years and in 2002 he led the team to finish runners-up at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Two years later he resigned after a disappointing Euros in Portugal where Germany went out at the group stage. After a brief period as a coach at AS Roma he signed a contract as sporting director at Bayer 04 in the summer of 2004 and he stayed with the club to the summer of 2022. During his long time under the Bayer Cross, Rudi Völler was the face of Bayer 04. On the last matchday in the 2021/22 season he received a farewell from the Bayer 04 fans with a big choreography.
Today Rudi is director of the Germany team.
Thomas Hörster was born in Essen on 27 November 1956. As a child, he took part in high diving and judo, but was also passionate about football. After starting out at Blau-Weiß Holsterhausen-Essen, he moved on to ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen. As a U19 player, he trained with the senior side for the first time. And at just under 18 years of age, Thommy – as he is known – made his debut in Bundesliga 2. Over two-and-a-half seasons, he made 71 appearances for Schwarz-Weiß Essen.
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Bernd Dreher was born in Leverkusen on 2 November 1966 and he began playing football at SV Schlebusch at the age of five. At the age of nine, he joined the youth academy at Bayer 04. There, the goalkeeper progressed through all the youth teams and, with the U19s in 1985, he reached the final of the German Championship, that Bayer 04 lost 4-2 to Eintracht Frankfurt.
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Robson Ponte was born on 6 November 1976 in São Paulo. He began his football career in Brazil with CA Juventus. He then played for América FC and Guarani FC. In 1999, he joined Bayer 04. Robson initially played for the Werkself until 2001. He then moved to VfL Wolfsburg on a two-year loan. There, he continued to develop and gained valuable experience in the Bundesliga. In 2003, he returned to Leverkusen, where he particularly showcased his dribbling skills and his ability in attacking midfield. In total, he made 79 appearances for Bayer 04 and scored six goals.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 from the month of November. It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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On Sunday, 4 November 1951, the first league derby between Bayer 04 and FC Köln took place. The FC Köln stadium in Müngersdorf was absolutely bursting at the seams for this clash. A veritable invasion of Bayer 04 fans from Leverkusen set off for Cologne by tram and bus. From midday onwards, in addition to the scheduled services, six extra tram services ran at the standard fare from Leverkusen Town Hall to the stadium in Cologne. At the same time, buses operated by Grein ran regularly from Wiesdorf market square to Cologne. In the end, over 5,000 Bayer 04 fans waved their black and red flags in the stands at the FC Köln stadium and got behind their team for ninety minutes.
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