Christian Schreier: 'First the bogeyman, then the hero'

Christian, let's talk about the 2-2 draw at Schalke. If it had existed at the time, you would have been voted Man of the Match...
Schreier: Probably. I can actually remember the game very well. It was the last game of the season and we definitely needed the one point to qualify for the UEFA Cup for the first time. Hamburg SV were breathing down our necks in seventh place. But we were totally motivated and definitely wanted to do it. And then it got off to a really good start for me (he laughs)…

You're talking about the first of your two goals…
Schreier: Exactly, only seven minutes had been played and I had the ball about 25 metres in front of our goal and was moving forward. I then turned round without really looking up played the ball back to Rüdiger Vollborn. Or at least I thought I had. Rüdiger wasn't standing where I expected him to be but rather to the side of his goal. That meant my back pass ended up in our own goal – a really peculiar situation. My blunder meant we were 1-0 down and I was really flummoxed.

And it got even worse: Schalke 04 went 2-0 up after the break through Ralf Regenbogen. The UEFA Cup looked to be out of reach.
Schreier: Yes, it was a shock. But we nevertheless had enormous trust in our attacking ability. Bum-kun Cha and Herbert Waas had already scored over 30 goals between them in that season and I was up to eleven at that point. And Schalke 04 were not one of the top teams in that season. So we still really believed in ourselves.

On the Royal Blues team, they had Klaus Fichtel, Olaf Thon, the future Bayer 04 coach Michael Skibbe and Klaus 'Boxer' Täuber, who later became your teammate under the Bayer Cross in 1987…
Schreier: It's true they had a good line-up in terms of the names. That made it even more important that Herbert Waas pulled a goal back a couple of minutes after Schalke made it 2-0. That gave us a real boost.

And then came the 74th minute…
Schreier:…which I'll never forget. Florian Hinterberger broke down the left wing and whipped in a cross. I was at the near post on the six-yard box with my back to the goal with a Schalke player tight on me. I received the ball and aimed a shot at the near corner of the net with my right heel. The Schalke keeper Walter Junghans got to the ball on the slippery pitch but only after it was behind the line. I was over the moon and relieved. First, I was the bogeyman, then the hero. That's how quickly things can change in football.

You certainly lived up to your nickname of 'Hacki' with that goal…
Schreier: (He laughs) It has to be justified somehow. But seriously: I very often used to do back-heels in training and in games. That was sort of a trademark for me. But I'm certainly proud of scoring such an important goal with a back-heel.

But you were called ‘Hacki’ for another reason…
Schreier: Well, I joined Leverkusen from Bochum as a recognised striker in 1984. But I had extremely stiff competition in attack with Bum-kun Cha and Herbert Waas. So I was converted to a midfielder by Erich Ribbeck who I knew as a coach from the Germany Olympic team. Mostly I played alongside Falko Götz and Atze Zechel on the wing. And yes, I could run and I was always in good shape. Sometimes I used to play as a man marker. And nevertheless I kept scoring goals, mostly at least ten a season.

How did you celebrate qualifying for Europe for the first time back then?
Schreier: We celebrated in style and went out in Leverkusen in the evening. But that was all.

It was an up-and-down season overall where you were treated as title contenders after beating aspiring champions Werder Bremen 5-1 on matchday 13. You scored a goal in that game too.
Schreier: That's right, Bremen were my favourites opponents back then. I almost always scored against Werder. But even after that great win, we didn't think about winning the title. We were that realistic at the time.

You were the one, a few months later, who scored the first two goals for Bayer 04 in the first UEFA Cup game in the club's history in Kalmar...
Schreier: Yes, that obviously fitted in really well and it was brilliant for me. And I also had a second nickname because I also went on to score several goals in a big UEFA Cup season in 1987/88: Mr Europa Cup. 1988 was by far the most successful season of my career. First we won the UEFA Cup and then I won a bronze medal with Germany at the Olympic Games in Seoul where I scored the final goal in the 3-0 win against Italy in the third-place play-off.

Personal details:
Christian Schreier, born in Castrop-Rauxel on 4 February 1959, Played 331 Bundesliga games for VfL Bochum (98), Bayer 04 (203) and Fortuna Düsseldorf (30).

He scored 106 goals, including 63 for Leverkusen where he played for 7 years (1984 to 1991). Schreier played once for Germany under Franz Beckenbauer against Argentina in 1984 and he also competed at two Olympic Games (1984 and 1988). Biggest honours: UEFA Cup winner with Bayer 04 in 1988, Olympic bronze medal winner.

After ending his playing career, he went on to coach FC Saarbrücken and Union Berlin and was the sporting director at SC Paderborn. Schreier has lived for many years in the Eppendorf suburb of Wattenscheid and works at the VfL Bochum Soccer School. He still plays up front for the Bayer 04 Veterans.

Under the new heading of 'Rudi recounts', club legend Rüdiger Vollborn takes Werkself fans in a short journey through the history of Bayer 04 every month. In the category 'Birthday boy of the month' , Vollborn talked about Christian Schreier in February introducing readers and fans to photos from back then plus a highlight video with Schreier's best goals in a Werkself shirt. Click HERE for the article.