Legends: Under the Cross for 44 years

I was born on 12 February 1963 in Berlin. I spent my first almost 19 years there with my parents and my sister in the Tempelhof district of Mariendorf. My parents tried to get me involved in their various sports. My mum came from swimming, my dad from handball. I wanted to be a goalkeeper - in football. I was also interested in handball, but outfield, and I played that alongside football until I was 15. In 1971, my mum took me to a small club called Traber FC and, after playing four games more badly than well outfield, I quickly found myself between the posts.

But after just three quarters of a year, my path leads me to the neighbouring Mariendorf club Blau-Weiß 90 - the pitches are only around 200 metres apart. In the 1972/73 season, our E-Youth team, now known as the U10s, was so good that we became Berlin champions. In fact, we were the first Berlin champions ever to be crowned in the E-Youth division in Berlin. I am proud to have played my part in this.

European and world champion with germany junior teams

In 1979, our B youth team, with some new players, is again so strong that we become German champions after a penalty shoot-out against FC Augsburg with players such as Raimund Aumann, Roland Grahammer, Christian Hochstätter and Leo Bunk. That was the signal for me to join the national youth team. I became European champion With that team I became a champion of Europe in 1981 and also a champion of the world six months later in Australia. To this day, we are the only Germany U20 team to have won that title.

In 1981, I made contact with Bayer 04 when Reiner Calmund called me in Berlin, brought to my attention by Kicker reporter Frank Lußem, whom I had told in an interview that I would like to go to Leverkusen. "Why Leverkusen?" he asked me. I replied: "Well, I can do an apprenticeship at the factory alongside my football, and the two goalkeepers Fred Bockholt and Hubert Makel are already quite old. The chance of playing in the Bundesliga there is pretty good."

two trophies with Bayer 04

In the summer of 1981, I joined Bayer, not realising that I would still be there 44 years later. After a year with the amateurs and a year on the bench with the first team, the then coach Dettmar Cramer made me number 1 for the 1983/84 season. When people ask me today how my career has gone, I like to put it in a nutshell: two years were so-so, eight years really good and two years so-so again. After winning the UEFA Cup in 1988 and the DFB Pokal in 1993, I was dropped to the bench in 1995. After I ended my playing career in 1999, I took charge of the reserves together with Peter Hermann and mainly looked after the goalkeepers. Then I was brought back in January 2000 because Dirk Heinen moved to Eintracht Frankfurt. I was part of the team again for six months, sat on the bench ten more times and experienced our drama in Unterhaching first hand.

passionate goakeeping coach and club historian

From the summer of 2000 onwards, I trained our young keepers for the next three years, including René Adler, who even became part of our family in August as he lived with us for four years. I met and fell in love with my wife Marion in Leverkusen in 1989. Our two boys, born in 1992 and 1994, both have their own Bayer 04 story. The older one, Fabrice, was a youth player at Bayer 04 for many years and is now a lawyer in Cologne. My younger son, Jérome, is a member of staff at the Bayer 04 Fanwelt. Together we moved into our house in Burscheid in March 1997 and my wife and I still live there.

From 2003, I was goalkeeping coach for the first team for the next nine years. When my knees stopped working so well and I found it increasingly difficult to shoot, I had to give up this job with a heavy heart. But I found a new challenge, becoming part of the fan support team and also carried out this task to the best of my knowledge and belief. In the course of organising the Schwadbud in 2014, I did a lot of research into the history of Bayer 04. I read a lot about our past and realised that there is a lot for us Leverkuseners to learn. Since our dream of 2024 came true, I've been employed as a club historian. I've been writing stories about our past in this "Rudi recounts" section for five years now.

I came to Leverkusen from Berlin 44 years ago and every day I am happy and proud to be a part of this club.