As a youth player, he made the step up to the first team and played one or two games in the GDR Oberliga. The midfielder is turned into a right-back at his next club Union Berlin. That remains his usual position with a few exceptions.
Bayer 04 boss Reiner Calmund becomes aware of the fast, dribbling right-back at a Union Berlin game when he was actually watching a different player. ‘Riete’, as his friends called him, joined Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 1994 and he stayed for three years. In those three years, he had three different coaches in Dragoslav Stepanovic, Erich Ribbeck and Christoph Daum but he was only more frequently in the starting line-up under Erich Ribbeck.
He makes a total of 31 appearances for Bayer 04 but doesn’t score. At the same time, he plays a significant role in probably the most important goal for Bayer 04 up to that point. When it comes to the relegation clash with FC Kaiserslautern at the Ullrich Haberland Stadium on 18 May 1996, he is given a special role by the caretaker coach Peter Hermann – he is to mark out the Kaiserslautern playmaker Uwe Wegmann and get involved with attacks. On 82 minutes, he receives the ball from captain Rudi Völler, tries his luck from 22 metres out with the “only decent shot with the instep in my career” (Riete quote) that sends the ball in the direction of the goal. The Kaiserslautern goalkeeper Andreas Reinke can only parry the shot and Markus Münch fires the ball into the back of the net on the rebound for the crucial equaliser. The rest is history.
After the following season under Christoph Daum with just two Bundesliga appearances from the bench, Riete joins Fortuna Düsseldorf in 1997. Then he becomes a German football journeyman. Up to the end of his career in 2009 he plays for SC Freiburg, VfL Bochum, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, MSV Duisburg, Holstein Kiel and Wuppertaler SV.
Mike now lives in Leipzig, in charge of the company Subline Sports and is a co-owner of the soccer school Kick’n Body. He still plays for our Veterans team when he has the time.
Dear Mike, all the best on your 50th birthday! Please keep your ‘Berliner brogue’ and stay healthy.
HERE is an in-depth profile on Mike Rietpietsch at bayer04.de.
Bernd Schneider, born in Jena on 17 November 1973, spent his early years in the German Democratic Republic. He took his first steps in football at the two Jena clubs BSG Aufbau and FC Carl Zeiss, the biggest club in his hometown. He played in the second division for six years in the 90s. Bernd Schneider stood out as an accomplished dribbler with his experience from street football always evident. His nickname Schnix comes from the Thuringian dialect: ‘Schnixeln’ is a synonym for dribbling, being able to control the ball. After Jena were relegated in 1998, Schnix went in the opposite direction. Newly promoted Eintracht Frankfurt brought into the Bundesliga. He spent a year there.
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18 June 1950 saw a friendly match for FC Köln, formed from the merger of two clubs in February 1948, against the Werkself at the Stadion Am Stadtpark. The two teams had already faced each other in May 1949 as winners of the Rhine district leagues in the final for promotion to the Oberliga West. The new club from Cologne came out on top in the two games and were promoted.
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In a messed-up season in 1984/85 everybody is happy that the battle against relegation is over before the final matchday. The visitors are UEFA Cup contenders SV Waldhof Mannheim in front of a sparse 6,000 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The Waldhof lads under their coach Klaus Schlappner are the surprise packet of the season. In their second campaign in the Bundesliga, the team from Mannheim are fifth on 35 points (with two points for a win back then) ahead of the game in Leverkusen and in a UEFA Cup qualifying spot. Two points behind them are Bayer 05 Uerdingen and Hamburg SV.
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Tranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
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Since the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
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