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.
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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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of May. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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There were high summer temperatures in Leverkusen on 25 May 1985. Matchday 32 brings FC Köln to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium with only 13,000 spectators at the derby. That is primarily due to the Werkself with Bayer 04 rarely impressing in that season and they are eleventh in the table before the game just three points ahead of sixteenth, the play-off spot. But with the two points for a win rule back then – two points were awarded for a win – and with the significantly better goal difference, the Werkself need every point to get out of trouble.
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It was all or nothing on the final matchday in the Verbandsliga in the 1974/75 season. Only now would it be decided who were champions and thereby participate in the promotion games to the Bundesliga 2 North. The earlier rivals Viktoria Köln, SC Jülich 10 and Bonner SC have fallen by the wayside.
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