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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.
Michal ‘Katsche’ Kadlec was born in the Czech town of Vyskov on 13 December 1984. At the age of six, he moved to the Pfalz region in Germany with his parents because his father Miroslav accepted an offer from FC Kaiserslautern where he played as a sweeper for the Red Devils for eight years. Katsche learned German in the kindergarten at Kaiserslautern. And he played football at an early age: first as a teenager at SV Alsenborn and then for FC Kaiserslautern.
Show moreHelmut Röhrig was born in Leverkusen on 14.12.19 44. He learned to play football at Bayer 04 and became a Middle Rhine champion with the U19s in 1963 finishing ahead of FC Köln. He played in the second team at the Werkself in his first year in senior football.
Show moreBernd Schuster was born in Augsburg on 22.12.19 59. His first club as a teenager was local side SV Hammerschmiede. From that time there was an anecdote that a former groundsman told us when we had a Pokal game in Augsburg in 1993. Bernd was always the first person on the training ground after school. With a running track around the pitch and goals without nets, the young Bernd practised free kicks and corners in the knowledge that he had to collect the ball himself. In that way he not only practised his technique but also worked on his stamina as a teenager.
Show moreWolfgang ‘Wolle’ Rolff was born on 26.12.1959 in Lamstedt, a community in the Lower Saxony administrative district of Cuxhaven. He started his football career at TSV Lamstedt. He moved on to OSC Bremerhaven with the U17s as he trained to be a retail salesman. He started in senior football at the Nordsee Stadium in Bremerhaven.
Show moreThe 1969/70 season begins with four defeats for Bayer 04. That puts the team coached by Theo Kirchberg bottom of the table. The Werkself only lift themselves out of the relegation zone on Matchday 10 with a 4-2 away win in Marl-Hüls. The position in the table improves over the course of the season.
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