He played for Rot-Weiß Hütte, a small club in the town Troisdorf, up to the younger year for the U19s. He then moved on to join the U19 team of the "bigger" SV Siegburg 04, playing in the top Middle Rhine U19 league that included Bayer 04. Playing against the Werkself, the attacking midfielder came to the attention of Bayer 04 boss Reiner Calmund who then brought him to the Bayer Cross to play for the U19 team.
He first played for the Bayer 04 reserve team before the Leverkusen head coach Erich Ribbeck brought him into the first-team squad in 1986. He very quickly established himself as a valuable squad player. The ball-winning Jean Pierre could play in midfield as well as in both full-back positions and as a central defender.
He made his first Bundesliga appearance on 22 November 1986. John Pierre came on as a substitute on 85 minutes in place of Herbert Waas in a 2-1 away win at FC Homburg. He made a total of 81 Bundesliga appearances for Bayer 04 scoring one goal. Up to 1991 he also played in six DFB Pokal and ten UEFA Cup games. His biggest success with Bayer 04 was winning the UEFA Cup in 1988. John Pierre played in five of the twelve games in that competition.
After his time at Leverkusen, he played for second division VfL Osnabrück. He ended his professional career at the end of the season and in 1992 he played as an amateur for VfL Hamm/Sieg. He also played for FV Bad Honnef and he played his last football match for the district league club SpVg Wesseling-Urfeld. He gave up the attempt to stay in football as a coach. He quickly recognised that it wasn't for him.
Nevertheless, Jean Pierre, who speaks fluent Dutch, French, English and German, is still to be seen on football pitches around the Middle Rhine. First as the chair of FC Blau-Weiß Büsdorf and since 2015 as the sporting director at SC Fliesteden.
Since 2019, the father of two children has lived with his English wife Samantha in Rheidt-Hückelhoven, a small community near Bergheim/Erft. The owner of two industrial companies that produce products for pipeline construction he has extended the stables in the style of old farms.
Dear Jean Pierre, I wish you all the best on your 60th birthday. Enjoy the celebrations and remain fit and healthy.
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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