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.
Minas Hantzidis was born on 4 July 1966 in Kettwig, near Essen, and he grew up in Germany. He developed a passion for football at a young age and, whilst still a youth player, moved from Wuppertaler SV to Bayer 04. The attacking and goal-scoring midfielder then made a name for himself in his first senior season at Bayer 04. In the reserve team, he scored goal after goal in the first half of the season, soon began training with the first team and was brought on as a substitute for the first time by manager Erich Ribbeck on 22 November 1985 in a home match against Bayern Munich.
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Sascha was born on 3 July 1986 in Leverkusen. He is the son of former Bundesliga 2 player Manfred Dum, who mainly scored goals for Union Solingen but also played for FC Saarbrücken, SC Freiburg and Wuppertaler SV. Sascha started playing for the youth teams at HSV Langenfeld at an early age. There, he caught the eye of scouts from Bayer 04 and joined the club at a young age. Following a growth spurt in the U15 team, which forced him to take a nine-month break, the left-footed player finally had the ideal conditions to establish himself in the Bayer 04 youth ranks. Even as an U17 player, he made the leap into the U19 team. Blessed with immense pace, Sascha primarily played in attacking midfield. Not the most technically gifted, but possessing a powerful shot, he found himself training with the first team in the summer of 2005 alongside Gonzalo Castro, while he was still a U19 player.
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The Werkself could not have hoped for a better start to the Bundesliga 2 North season in 1976/77. At the end of a week-long training camp in Quickborn, Schleswig-Holstein, coach Willibert Kremer’s side secured two convincing victories over BSC Brunsbüttel (5–0) and TuS Holstein Quickborn (6–0). Following this flying start, Bayer 04 faced a considerably tougher challenge on 23 July 1976 at 19:30 CEST at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium against Bundesliga side Karlsruher SC.
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On 27 June 2001, new head coach Klaus Toppmöller and his assistant Peter Hermann led the Werkself out of the changing rooms for their first training session. Joining them as they stepped onto the pitch at training ground 1 were the four new signings: Hans Jörg Butt, Yildiray Bastürk (with special permission from VfL Bochum, as Bayer 04 and VfL had not yet agreed on a transfer fee), Zoltan Sebescen and Michael Zepek, the record holder for appearances for the youth national team.
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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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