Blackburn Rovers were the first English team to come to Leverkusen. The fee for the English second division club took up half of the income of at least 3,000 marks. The "Rovers" from the cloth mills of Blackburn were the six-time FA Cup winners and two-time champions of England. The fact those honours were mainly over 40 years before did not bother anybody in Leverkusen. Exactly as little as the fact that the announced international players were not actually internationals as we know today.
The English professionals arrived two days before the game in Leverkusen. They had a packed agenda on the matchday on Saturday 17 May 1952. At nine in the morning there was a tour of the works, lunch at noon, after that time spent at the municipal swimming baths up to five o'clock before 'five o'clock tea' to prepare for the match. By the time of the kick off at 6:30 in the evening there were 7,000 spectators around the pitch to witness the promised great event.
Leverkusen took the lead on 29 minutes with a shot from centre forward Fritz Tiede and they went 2-0 up at the start of the second half with a goal from Emil 'Bubi' Becks. However, the English team hit back to make it 2-1. The deserved equaliser came on 59 minutes and the game ended all square despite chances for both sides. That great day was rounded off with an evening meal for the two teams in the Krahne club pub in Wiesdorf. The only bad news was an injury to midfielder Richard Job who had to go off on 43 minutes.
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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