Exactly one year after his defection, he played his first Bundesliga match for Bayer 04: He came on as a substitute 82 minutes into the 1-1 draw at Bielefeld. Falko went on to make 118 Bundesliga appearances for Bayer 04 scoring 26 goals along the way. In 1985, coach Erich Ribbeck turned the centre-forward into an attacking midfielder. He only made one more appearance as a centre-forward – he wore the number nine shirt on 18 May 1988 in the UEFA Cup final and he made it 2-0 with a brilliant flying header.
He went on to play for FC Köln, Galatasaray, FC Saarbrücken and Hertha Berlin. After hanging up his boots, he immediately took the job as coach to the Hertha Berlin second team and he has continued to work in football including spells as head coach at Hertha Berlin and 1860 Munich and as the national coach for Vietnam. Today he works in the scouting section at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. I wish you many happy returns on your 60th birthday, my old teammate.
Harry Gniech was born on 14 October 1951 in Leverkusen-Schlebusch. At the age of six, he joined SV Bayer 04, initially in the athletics section. The boy actually wanted to play football, but was only allowed to switch to the football team when he turned nine. Harry quickly established himself as a playmaker in midfield. Despite his talent, the path from the youth team to the first-team squad was a long one back then. In the 1973–74 season, his former U19 coach, Friedhelm Renno – who was by then in charge of Bayer 04’s first team – selected him for his first match with the professional squad.
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Henrique Adriano Buss, known as Henrique, was born on 14 October 1986 in Marechal Cândido Rondon, a town in the Brazilian state of Paraná. At the age of 13, he joined Coritiba FC and made the step up to the first team in 2006. Henrique helped the team gain promotion to the Brazilian top flight and then moved on to Palmeiras FC. After just five matches for his new club, the 1.85-metre-tall centre-back was signed by Barcelona in 2008 for ten million euros and loaned to Bayer 04 for one year for a fee of €400,000.
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Constant Djakpa was born on 17 October 1986 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He started playing football at the age of five. He took his first steps in professional football at Stella Club d’Adjamé, before moving on to Sogndal IL in Norway. His path eventually led him to Germany via the Romanian club Pandurii Târgu Jiu.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 from the month of October. It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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In the first week of October 1966, professional footballers decided to take an unusual step – they went on strike. They felt compelled to resort to this action, which was relatively uncommon until then, to give greater weight to their demands for fair pay. They reasoned that, with three draws, they were entitled to a bonus; at the very least, a points bonus of 75 Deutschmarks that was agreed before the start of the season.
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