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.
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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