Goals for eternity

In his 13 years as a professional player at Bayer 04, the honorary captain and record goalscorer made 446 appearances scoring 238 goals along the way. Many of them remain unforgotten, including his header to win the DFB Pokal in 1993. Ulf Kirsten celebrates his 60th birthday today Thursday - and Bayer 04 are happy to take this opportunity to look back on some of the former number nine’s special goals and games. But first of all: Happy Birthday, dear Ulf!

Ulf Kirsten, the boy from Riesa, was the second player from the GDR after Andreas Thom to come to Leverkusen shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He signed his contract with Bayer 04 in the spring of 1990. And the newly-crowned GDR Footballer of the Year, who had just won his second consecutive league title with Dynamo Dresden, was an instant hit with his new club. Kirsten, then 24, needed no time to acclimatise in the West. So where to start with his Bayer 04 story? Well, it's best to start right at the beginning, with his first goal.

brace on debut, goal at the Olympic stadium

It took Kirsten just four minutes to score his first goal in a Leverkusen jersey. His early strike paved the way to a 5-0 DFB Pokal win at lower-league SC Victoria Hamburg on 4 August 1990. The centre-forward followed up with his second goal just over an hour later. He also scored in his first Bundesliga match for the Werkself in the following week: Away to the reigning champions of Germany Bayern Munich, Kirsten put the visitors from Leverkusen 1-0 ahead in the 63rd minute with a right-footed shot. The team from Munich, coached by Jupp Heynckes, had four players in the starting line-up at the time - Klaus Augenthaler, Jürgen Kohler, Hans Pflügler and Stefan Reuter - who had won the World Cup with Germany just four weeks earlier. But Kirsten never had excessive respect for big names. Bayern were lucky to salvage a point thanks to a penalty converted by Stefan Effenberg shortly before the end.

Kirsten also scored on his European debut for Bayer 04. He scored the winner in a 1-0 victory against Twente Enschede in the first round of the UEFA Cup on 18 September. And he secured his team a place in the next round with his goal in the second leg to make it 1-1 in extra time. It was already clear that Ulf Kirsten was a man for crucial goals.

Pokal hero in Berlin

There is no doubt one of his most important goals was the header to make it 1-0 against Hertha BerlinAamateurs in the DFB Pokal final on 12 June 1993. He will never forget the 77th minute: "I see Pavel Hapal trying to cross from the left and I immediately move to the far post. The ball arrives, I jump higher than the Berlin keeper Fiedler with his outstretched arms and place the ball in the far corner of the net. We finally scored our goal." And Kirsten was able to celebrate winning a trophy with Bayer 04. They had already knocked out the favourites Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals. The Schwatte, as Kirsten was known due to his dark complexion and black hair, also scored a goal in the 3-0 win in Frankfurt. The other two goals were scored by his strike partner Andreas Thom - both set up by Kirsten.

the Schwatte scores in the derby after 17 Seconds

The 1992/93 season was very much to Kirsten's taste. With 20 goals, he was the top scorer in the Bundesliga for the first time - together with Eintracht Frankfurt's Anthony Yeboah. He also scored one of the fastest goals of his career that season. And it came against FC Köln of all teams, one of his favourite opponents. The Werkself number nine found the back of the net after just 17 seconds. Shortly after half-time, he doubled the lead at 2-0 before Pavel Hapal finally sealed the derby victory on 8 May 1993 with the third goal.

In the following season, Ulf Kirsten was not the team's top scorer for the first time since his move to Leverkusen. New signing Paulo Sergio had a fantastic first year under the Cross with 17 goals. Kirsten "only" scored 12 goals. Nevertheless, he was once again to have the last word. On the final matchday, Bayer 04 had to win at VfB Leipzig in order to qualify for the UEFA Cup again. The score was 2-2 at the Zentralstadion with one minute to play. The Werkself would only have finished sixth with a draw and thereby miss out on playing in Europe. But Ulf Kirsten was on hand in the 89th minute to score the all-important goal at 3-2. Bayer 04 jumped up to third place, the best position in their Bundesliga history up to that point, were back in the UEFA Cup and set to cause a sensation in the following season, above all thanks to the talented and combative Ulf Kirsten.

Kirsten VS Ronaldo duel

On 13 September 1994, the European opener against PSV Eindhoven developed into a kind of private duel between the two centre forwards. On one side Ulf Kirsten, on the other the Brazilian Ronaldo. The star of the 2002 World Cup had only just emerged. In this memorable match, Kirsten opened the scoring, but Ronaldo, who was only 17 at the time, equalised. After Tom Dooley made it 2-1, Kirsten netted a brace to make it 4-1, and Ronaldo did the same to bring PSV back in the game at 4-3. Bernd Schuster then scored for the hosts before Luc Nilis scored for PSV shortly before the end to make it 5-4. What a game at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium! In that UEFA Cup campaign, Bayer 04 only lost in the semi-finals to eventual winners AC Parma from Italy, with Ulf Kirsten becoming Europe's top scorer with ten goals.

When the difficult period that had almost led to relegation to the second tier in 1996 was over and Christoph Daum took charge at Leverkusen, Kirsten flourished again. In his very first year under Daum, he rediscovered his former strengths. With 22 goals, Kirsten won the top goalscorer award for the second time since 1993. With his goals, he made a significant contribution to the Werkself finishing runners-up in the Bundesliga for the first time, which meant they could look forward to their first UEFA Champions League campaign.

TWO HAt-tricks against fc Köln and FC Bayern

In the 1997/98 season, the goalscorer (the title of a Kirsten biography) seamlessly continued his run. Two key matches in November 1997 stood out: the derby against FC Köln on 11 November and the top match against Bayern Munich three weeks later, both at the sold-out Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Derby games were always among Kirsten's favourite matches. He lived the Rhineland rivalry with every fibre of his being. And what could be better than seeing off FC Köln with a 4-0 win to kick off the carnival season as he scored three goals himself in the process.

 

That Kirsten gala performance was followed at the end of November by his next thrilling display. Even the biggest optimists would probably not have bet on the Werkself in the clash with the record champions from Munich when they were 2-0 down after 15 minutes and had to play with ten men after the half-hour mark due to a red card for Christian Wörns. When there was a glimmer of hope when Jan Heintze pulled a goal back shortly before half-time. But what followed in the second half was totally unexpected.

On 69 minutes, Kirsten headed the ball into the net under the bar to make it 2-2 after a free-kick from Stefan Beinlich. In the 90th minute, Hans-Peter Lehnhoff crossed towards the six-yard box - Kirsten was on hand again with a header with Oliver Kahn standing no chance of making a save as Bayer 04 went 3-2 up. The game was turned round by the ten men but not yet over. The Schwatte had not finished. When he rounded off a counter-attack to make it 4-2 against FC Bayern, who were throwing everything into attack with Lothar Matthäus, Didi Hamann and Mehmet Scholl, the Haberland Stadium went wild. That Sunday night is never to be forgotten! Even FC Bayern's Brazilian striker Giovane Elber raved after Kirsten's hat-trick: "I've seen a lot of strikers, but none like Kirsten. The way he works hard, fights, runs, tears himself apart for the team and scores - it's madness!"

Although Bayer 04 only finished third at the end of the season, Ulf Kirsten was crowned top scorer for the third time with another 22 goals. And his ten yellow cards were once again proof that Kirsten not only knew where the goal was, but also dominated the battle in the penalty area.

goalscorer in the biggest Bundesliga wins

Kirsten proved to be reliable in the following two seasons. He scored 19 goals in the 1998/99 campaign, including another hat-trick in the 8-2 away win at Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the "highly explosive bundle of energy" (Christoph Daum on Ulf Kirsten) scored 17 goals in the following season. Of course, he was also one of the scorers in Bayer 04's record 9-1 Bundesliga win at SSV Ulm 1846 on 18 March 2000. The fact that, after 1999, they only finished runners-up in 2000 because their nerves failed them at Unterhaching also preyed on Kirsten’s mind. Two years later, three trophies were possible. Again, nothing came of it at the last moment. And yet, even later on in his career, Kirsten time and again demonstrated his phenomenal goal-scoring instinct and his outstanding quality as a marksman.

The 'Veteran' on target at 36 

In the very first group game in the Champions League, Kirsten got Leverkusen off to a dream start with his decisive strike in the 1-0 win at Olympique Lyon. It was a typical Ulf Kirsten goal: The Schwatte connected with a cross from Zoltan Sebescen just ahead of Edmilson and tucked the ball past Lyon keeper Coupet into the net. "That sums up Ulf as a real goalscorer. He has a chance and he takes it," enthused Bayer 04 coach Klaus Toppmöller.

The French newspaper "Le Monde" also paid tribute to the German goalscorer and pointed out that Kirsten had managed to end a series of "heavy German defeats at the Stade Gerland". The newspaper recalled Germany’s World Cup exit against Croatia in 1998 and the defeats of Werder Bremen a year later in the UEFA Cup and FC Bayern in the Champions League against Olympique in March 2001 - all of which ended in 3-0 defeats from a German perspective. "This 'old man' of European football is not yet thirty-six, but he has seen it all. Now the veteran enabled Bayer Leverkusen to win 1-0 in the city on the Rhone," was the almost reverential assessment in Le Monde.

like Karate Kid: Ulf's last ucl goal

But the veteran was far from being over the hill. On the way to the final in Glasgow, Kirsten made his mark with two more goals. His goal in the 2-1 win at Fenerbahce contributed to the team going through to the intermediate round. And he secured qualification for the Round of 16 with his last-minute equaliser against Arsenal. Another goal that only Kirsten could score. Bernd Schneider's ball to the far post got longer and longer, but Kirsten anticipated the trajectory, ran in perfectly and, with a scissor kick, "like the Karate Kid", as the striker later put it, he put the ball into the net to make it 1-1.

That was his 41st goal in his 70th European game - and it was to be his last on the European stage. "Without that goal, we wouldn't have reached the quarter-finals," said coach Klaus Toppmöller with certainty. The fans would not have seen a thriller against Liverpool, dramatic duels against Manchester United in the semi-final and the memorable final against Real Madrid.

His very last goal, number 238, for the Black and Reds was far less momentous. Ulf Kirsten scored once more in the 2002 DFB Pokal final loss against FC Schalke 04, but his strike at 4-2 on 89 minutes was no longer a source of real joy.