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In his first international he suffered a serious knee injury that kept him on the sidelines for months. Nevertheless, he stayed under the Bayer Cross, played for the reserve team and was employed at the Bayer Works. Based on his good performances in the following years he was recommended for the first team by the reserve coach Gerd Kentschke at the start of 1987. In his first training session with the first team he caught his studs in the grass and broke his foot.
The second attempt came six months later. First team central defender Alois Reinhardt was ruled out and Erich Seckler played his first Bundesliga match – at the age of 24. On 17 October 1987, he marked his opponent Stefan Kuntz out of the game in the home match against Bayer 05 Uerdingen. Erich made his European debut four days later in the UEFA Cup in Toulouse. There he faced the France international Dominique Rocheteau. He also completed that task brilliantly and became a regular starter for the Werkself.
Erich impressed with his battling qualities. His approach to the game spared neither himself nor his opponents. He always went in hard and sometimes took the opponent with the ball. When he won possession he mostly quickly laid the ball off to a teammate. Erich fought his way into the hearts of the Bayer 04 fans with his honest approach to football, winning the UEFA Cup with the Werkself in 1988 and he clocked up a total of 106 appearances for Bayer 04 with three goals scored.
After twelve years under the Bayer Cross he moved to the capital to play for Hertha Berlin. But he was forced to end his playing career at the age of 30 due to serious back problems. He returned to his hometown and worked as an almoner and as a landscape gardener. He is now the caretaker at a primary school in Düsseldorf.
Dear Erich, I wish you many happy returns on your 60th birthday. Stay healthy and have a good one.
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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