Diego Placente, who stood out primarily with his tactical understanding and his ball-winning ability, played at left-back where he supported technical players like Zé Roberto and Yildiray Bastürk. But he also had to help out as a central defender from time to time, which he mastered in style.
Diego Placente made a total of 123 Bundesliga appearances and he scored three goals in the league. He did not find the back of the net in his 13 DFB Cup ties and 32 Champions League matches playing in our colours. Today he works as a youth coach with the Argentina Football Association and here he is primarily responsible for the U17 and U19 teams as the assistant coach.
A lot of Bayer 04 fans primarily remember a unique save by Diego: It is 30 April 2001 in the final minute of the Champions League semi-final between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Manchester United. The score is 1-1 and the Toppmöller team are giving their all to prevent conceding a second goal as that would mean being knocked out. Jörg Butt punched a cross out of the penalty area from outside the six-yard box and the ball landed at the feet of Diego Forlan and he hit it straight back over all the players towards the goal. The shot looked to be going in – and then Diego Placente made the save with a flying header. Never before – and I maintain never afterwards – was such a save, including saves from goalkeepers, cheered so loudly and enthusiastically as this flying header.
Feliz Cumpleaños, Diego and stay healthy.
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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