Birthday boys of the month: Posner, Falkenmayer and Rink

The scouts at Borussia Mönchengladbach spotted the 20-year-old playing in an amateur international against Austria and they brought him to the Bökelberg, first as an amateur and then professional player. He was not a regular first choice but he did play twice in the Bundesliga and twice in the UEFA Cup and he won the German league title and the UEFA Cup with Borussia in 1975. After two years, where he was mostly on the bench, he wanted to play more regularly so he made contact with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. He signed for the newly promoted club to the Bundesliga Two North and he went on to play 141 times for the Werkself scoring two goals along the way. He was promoted to the Bundesliga with Bayer 04 in 1979.

And he held his own there. The striker had been converted into a central defender at Mönchengladbach and he played regularly for the Bayer team up to 1984. He stood out with his calm, relaxed and, above all, fair style of play. He was never shown a red card in 134 Bundesliga matches and only picked up nine yellows.

The trained electrician feels at home in his workplace at the Bayer works. Walla worked as a communications engineer during his playing career. After he stopped playing he went full-time at Bayer AG and trained sporadically with one or the other amateur clubs such as SV Wesseling, VfL Rheinbach and SW Stotzheim.

Walla is now 70. Many happy returns. Stay healthy and have a good one.

Birthday boy of the month II: Ralf Falkenmayer

Birthday boy of the month III: Paulo Rink