Doc­tor and football player

As an East Germany youth international, he played against the future England World Cup winner Bobby Moore and, as a striker, he counted amongst the most successful Bayer 04 goalscorers in the Oberliga and Regional League West in the 1960s, and as a qualified doctor and surgeon he operated on the broken leg of the German goalscoring legend Klaus Fischer. Today (Thursday), Dr. Klaus Heydenreich celebrates his 80th birthday. We take this opportunity to look back at an unusual career.

It always appeared to be certain that he would become a doctor. His grandfather was a general practitioner and country doctor as was his father. Klaus Heydenreich was happy to follow the family tradition even if a career as a professional footballer would definitely have been possible for him. Born in Wurzen, a small town between Leipzig and Dresden, the lad became an east Germany youth international with the works sports club Empor Wurzen West. For the specialist journal Fußballwoche, he was "the absolute superstar of East German youth football." Back then he played against another up-and-coming superstar in an international: England's legendary defender Bobby Moore who led his team to victory at the 1966 World Cup as captain.

At the age of 19, Heydenreich joined SC Loko Leipzig and he began studying medicine at the university in the city at the same time. The young and lightning-fast striker also broke through immediately in the Oberliga, the top-flight in the German Democratic Republic. But in May 1961, a few months before the Berlin Wall was built, the family fled to West Berlin. "My father dropped everything when he was just turned 50 and I later went on to admire a lot for that," said Heydenreich. "I couldn't really identify with that at the time as I was pampered star from the East who was immediately allowed to study at Loko Leipzig and did not have to join the army and he earned 700 East Marks per month which was very good money."

Striker without presence in the penalty area

In October 1961, two months after the wall had been constructed, the family moved to Leverkusen where his father was able to take over a practice. Klaus Heydenreich joined Bayer 04, trained under coach Erich Gaskin and in 1962 won promotion to the Oberliga. He was initially unable to play as fleeing the German Democratic Republic involved being suspended for a year due to changing associations without permission. In his first Oberliga season in 1962/63, the striker quickly gained a regular spot under the new coach Fritz Pliska. He played in 23 of 30 league matches and was the third highest scorer in the team with seven goals behind Hans-Otto Peters (13) and Uwe Klimaschefski (10).

"We really had a great team back then with a strong attack. In addition to Peters and Klimaschefski, you primarily have to include Heinz Höher, the star of the team, and Werner Görts who pulled opposition defenders apart with his pace as a left-winger." Klaus Heydenreich with his pace and technique was able to run 100 metres in 11.3 seconds and he saw himself more as a provider than a finisher. "I was actually a striker without presence in the penalty area," said Heydenreich with a smile. My heading was simply too poor for a traditional centre-forward. That was definitely also because I had to wear contact lenses due to my poor eyesight."

a spectacular derby clash

He particularly likes to remember the derby games against FC Köln. Such as the action-packed 5-4 win on 17 February 1963 on the snow-covered pitch at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. After being a goal down, Hans-Otto Peters turned the game round with two goals and he and Uwe Klimaschewski made it 4-1 before FC Köln were able to level the scores within twelve minutes through World Cup winner Hans Schäfer and Germany internationals Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and Leo Wilden. "Werner Görts scored the winner at 5-4 a few minutes before the final whistle and shortly after that Heinz Höher missed a penalty – it was a crazy game," said Heydenreich.

Bayer 04 were able to impress against the really big teams in that season. Against Borussia Dortmund including Lothar Emmerich and against Meidericher SV, against Preußen Münster and Schalke 04 who finished the season behind champions FC Köln and were all promoted to the newly founded Bundesliga. Leverkusen finished ninth after 30 games level on points with eighth-placed Viktoria Köln, back then under coach Hennes Weisweiler with players including later Bayer 04 coaches Erich Ribbeck and Willibert Kremer.

Medical student and player

While key Leverkusen players like Höher, Klimaschefski, Manfred Manglitz, and later Peters and Werner Biskup, signed for Bundesliga clubs, Klaus Heydenreich stayed at the club. He was counted amongst the key players in the Regional League West in 1963/64 making 33 appearances in 38 league matches where his eleven goals were the second highest number behind Hans-Otto Peters. However, studying medicine now took centre stage for Heydenreich with him starting in Cologne and then continuing in Düsseldorf. He had to take a break from football at the time of his preliminary medical examinations and state examinations and later he almost exclusively played the Bayer Reserves. He played a number of games in the Regional League when he was a qualified doctor.

In 1971, he moved with his Leverkusen-born wife Helgard to Bochum and worked there as an orthopaedic doctor and surgeon in Bergmannsheil, the biggest accident surgery department in Germany. In his time off, he remained a passionate football player in the Verbandsliga up to the age of 35 with Concordia Bochum, "because I just couldn't let it lie."

Klaus Fischer on the operating table

Later, when he was working as a head consultant in Gelsenkirchen-Buer, he had a famous centre-forward on the operating table: Klaus Fischer broke his leg in March 1980 in a game against Bayer Uerdingen and he was operated on by the former striker Dr. Klaus Heydenreich. "Back then, he worked as a sports medicine consultant at Schalke 04." A second job but it did not really suit him after a while. "The relationship between clubs and team doctors or medics was different. The doctor was mainly there to give players injections and that wasn't what I was about."

Heydenreich, then 39, left the Ruhrgebiet, set himself up as an independent surgeon in the small Rhineland Palatinate spa town of Bad Ems where he worked for 35 years. He comes to the BayArena two or three times per season to meet up with old contemporaries such as Friedhelm Renno and Günter Haarmann to watch the Werkself play. Klaus Heydenreich has kept himself fit over the years by playing tennis. He has been a member of the Blau-Weiß Bad Ems tennis club for over 40 years.

Bayer 04 wish their former player many happy returns on his 80th birthday.