Birthday boy of the month: Heiko Scholz turns 60

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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In one of his first games for Dynamo, a friendly against Bayer 04, he caught the eye of Leverkusen boss Reiner Calmund. But it was another two years before he came under the Bayer Cross. Before that, Heiko played his last international match for the former GDR. On 12 September 1990, the last faithful players - many GDR players refused to play - secured a 2-0 away win in Belgium. It was Scholle's seventh international appearance for the GDR. He only earned one international cap for Germany: On 12 October 1992, in Dresden of all places, he played in a 1-1 draw with Mexico. By then, he had already played his first Bundesliga games for the Werkself.

DFB Pokal winner with Bayer 04

In 1992, the fast and always hard-working midfielder signed for Bayer 04, where he immediately became a regular starter and he played 33 Bundesliga games for the Black and Reds in his first season. Scholle scored three goals and won the DFB Pokal with Bayer 04 in the last game of the season with a 1-0 victory against the amateur team from Hertha Berlin. In his three years at Bayer 04, he made 93 appearances and scored six goals. With his funny and always authentic manner, he was an important part of the Werkself in these three years. He lived with his family in Leichlingen and stayed there for the next few years.

After the 1994/95 season, he moved north. Heiko played for Werder Bremen for the next two years. From 1997 to 2000, he the spent a year each at Fortuna Köln, SG Wattenscheid 09 and Dresdner SC.

back to dresden as assistant coach

After his playing career was over, Scholle switched to the dugout. He started as an assistant coach of the Bayer 04 U17 team, before taking on the same role at MSV Duisburg for six years from 2003. He then became head coach there in 2009. He returned to Dynamo Dresden in 2019 via Germania Windeck, Viktoria Köln, Lokomotive Leipzig and Wacker Nordhausen.

Since then, he has been employed by the Saxony club as an assistant coach and he helped secure promotion to Bundesliga 2 with Dynamo last season.

Dear Scholle, I wish you all the best for your 60th birthday. Stay healthy and enjoy the day!