The date is 7 Match 1981. The Bayer 04 team have not for twelve games and are slipping ever closer to the drop zone. Level on points with 1860 Munich, the threat of relegation is looming at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. And now second-placed Bayern Munich are the visitors. Everyone who was there will remember the goals, the first hat-trick for one Bayer 04 player and that was Arne Larsen Ökland. But also our phantom goal in the same match. Watch the video for three minutes of match highlights in the 3-0 home win plus excerpts from a great interview with the star of the match. By the way: An 18-year-old goalkeeper from Berlin came to Leverkusen two days later for a trial training session. His name: Rüdiger Vollborn.







And Bayern Munich once again, 16 years later. Bayer 04 are in the running for the league title in the first year under Christoph Daum. Bayern visit the BayArena as league leaders with a five-point lead so the Werkself are under pressure to perform. The usual front two, Ulf Kirsten and Erik Meijer, are on the bench due to slight knocks. Markus Feldhoff is the only Leverkusen striker and he becomes the matchwinner with three goals. The atmosphere at the stadium is fantastic. And it was before kick-off too when our home end presented the best fan choreography in a German stadium. The video shows highlights of the 5-2 win against Bayern.

Minas Hantzidis was born on 4 July 1966 in Kettwig, near Essen, and he grew up in Germany. He developed a passion for football at a young age and, whilst still a youth player, moved from Wuppertaler SV to Bayer 04. The attacking and goal-scoring midfielder then made a name for himself in his first senior season at Bayer 04. In the reserve team, he scored goal after goal in the first half of the season, soon began training with the first team and was brought on as a substitute for the first time by manager Erich Ribbeck on 22 November 1985 in a home match against Bayern Munich.
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Sascha was born on 3 July 1986 in Leverkusen. He is the son of former Bundesliga 2 player Manfred Dum, who mainly scored goals for Union Solingen but also played for FC Saarbrücken, SC Freiburg and Wuppertaler SV. Sascha started playing for the youth teams at HSV Langenfeld at an early age. There, he caught the eye of scouts from Bayer 04 and joined the club at a young age. Following a growth spurt in the U15 team, which forced him to take a nine-month break, the left-footed player finally had the ideal conditions to establish himself in the Bayer 04 youth ranks. Even as an U17 player, he made the leap into the U19 team. Blessed with immense pace, Sascha primarily played in attacking midfield. Not the most technically gifted, but possessing a powerful shot, he found himself training with the first team in the summer of 2005 alongside Gonzalo Castro, while he was still a U19 player.
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The Werkself could not have hoped for a better start to the Bundesliga 2 North season in 1976/77. At the end of a week-long training camp in Quickborn, Schleswig-Holstein, coach Willibert Kremer’s side secured two convincing victories over BSC Brunsbüttel (5–0) and TuS Holstein Quickborn (6–0). Following this flying start, Bayer 04 faced a considerably tougher challenge on 23 July 1976 at 19:30 CEST at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium against Bundesliga side Karlsruher SC.
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On 27 June 2001, new head coach Klaus Toppmöller and his assistant Peter Hermann led the Werkself out of the changing rooms for their first training session. Joining them as they stepped onto the pitch at training ground 1 were the four new signings: Hans Jörg Butt, Yildiray Bastürk (with special permission from VfL Bochum, as Bayer 04 and VfL had not yet agreed on a transfer fee), Zoltan Sebescen and Michael Zepek, the record holder for appearances for the youth national team.
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Hans Sarpei was born on 28 June 1976 in Tema, Ghana, and came to Germany with his parents at the age of three, where he grew up in Cologne. Even before he was born, his mother and father worked in Hamburg in the import-export sector. There they met an older man who introduced them to German culture and supported them. Out of gratitude, Hans was later given his first name, although this man died before he was born. Hans comes from a sporting family; his older brother Edward and his nephews Hans Nunoo Sarpei and Kingsley Sarpei were or are also professional footballers.
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