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.
Francoaldo Sena de Souza, known as Franca, was born on 2 March 1976 in Codó in north-eastern Brazil and is one of the best-known Brazilian football players of the late 1990s and early 2000s. His exceptional talent became apparent early on. He began his career at smaller Brazilian clubs before moving to the tradition-steeped São Paulo FC in 1996. There, Franca quickly developed into one of the most dangerous strikers in the league. His technique, goal-scoring instinct and agility delighted fans and pundits alike, and he scored numerous goals for the club over the years.
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Lars Bender was born on 27 April 1989 in Rosenheim and grew up with his twin brother Sven in a football-loving family. They began playing football in Brannenburg, a small community near Rosenheim. The twins joined Unterhaching to play for the U11 side, followed by a move to the U14s at 1860 Munich. There, Lars and Sven became German champions with the U17s, skipped the Lion's U19s and were directly part of the 1860 Munich first and second team squads.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in Bayer 04 history from the month of March . It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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Bayer 04 had their backs to the wall after a 3-1 defeat in a rearranged match at FC Kaiserslautern on 17 March 1981. After a throw-in, which the linesman clearly indicated in favour of the Werkself, but which the Lauter team quickly took and the weak referee did not intervene, a dubious penalty was awarded. Lauter took advantage of this to make it 2-1 in the 84th minute. Finally, a shot by the home side, which did not cross the line, made it 3-1 and Bayer 04 had to go home from Betzenberg without any points.
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It was 4 March 1951 and Bayer 04 were five points ahead going into the decisive home game against second-placed SSV Wuppertal, who would merge with TSG Vohwinkel 80 to form Wuppertaler SV three years later. Bayer 04 press officer Heinz Nelles predicted a big matchday at the sports ground at the Stadtpark and recommends Bayer 04 fans to buy their tickets in advance from the usual ticket outlets, especially from Peter Haas at the Trinkhalle Rathaus. After a four-week injury lay-off, centre-forward Emil ‘Bubi’ Becks will be back for the first time. And when the gates to the Stadtpark are opened on Sunday, the spectators stream into the stadium. The windows of the houses on the neighbouring Walter-Nernst-Straße are also packed.
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