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.
Tranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
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Since the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of May. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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There were high summer temperatures in Leverkusen on 25 May 1985. Matchday 32 brings FC Köln to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium with only 13,000 spectators at the derby. That is primarily due to the Werkself with Bayer 04 rarely impressing in that season and they are eleventh in the table before the game just three points ahead of sixteenth, the play-off spot. But with the two points for a win rule back then – two points were awarded for a win – and with the significantly better goal difference, the Werkself need every point to get out of trouble.
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It was all or nothing on the final matchday in the Verbandsliga in the 1974/75 season. Only now would it be decided who were champions and thereby participate in the promotion games to the Bundesliga 2 North. The earlier rivals Viktoria Köln, SC Jülich 10 and Bonner SC have fallen by the wayside.
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