St. Nicholas Day 1996, a Friday: Bayer 04 are the league leaders when they travel to the previously unbeaten at home newcomers and fifth-placed VfL Bochum. A week after the terrific home win in the derby, the Werkself are solid in defence and put VfL, coached by the future Bayer 04 boss Klaus Toppmöller, under heavy pressure with their pressing. After a deserved opener from Ulf Kirsten on 18 minutes, Bochum are awarded a disputed penalty that Thomas Stickroth converted to equalise. The game threatens to turn round with Bochum having two really good goalscoring opportunities before half-time.
Bayer 04 regain the upper hand after the restart, retake the lead and have the game under control after a red card is shown to the Bochum player Kracht. With 89 minutes played, a wonderful strike from a free-kick by Dariusz Wosz levels the scores at 2-2 and stops Bayer 04 being top of the table at the end of the first half of the season. The Werkself drop two points that, as we know today, will be sorely missed at the end of the campaign.
HERE are TV highlights of the clash in Bochum.
Klaus Toppmöller is the Bayer 04 coach five years later and he has taken his team to the top of the table. On 8 December, four days after a brilliant 3-0 home win against Deportivo La Coruna in the Champions League, FC Nürnberg under coach Klaus Augenthaler visit the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
As so often in that season, the Werkself had to go behind, and even twice this time, before waking up. The match ended in a hard-fought 4-2 home win with top spot maintained. Despite two away defeats in Berlin and Wolfsburg, Bayer 04 are top of the league at the halfway stage and then at Christmas because Borussia Dortmund can only manage to draw twice. Here too: Today we know what a point in these two games would have brought.
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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On 3 June 1953, Hans-Josef (‘Sepp’) Kretschmann became the fifth coach in the history of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Born in Allenstein, East Prussia, on 21 March 1902, the football coach first studied to become a teacher before later switching to football. He took over the Werkself from Franz Strehle, under whom the team twice managed to stay in the 1st Oberliga West. However, Strehle did not extend his contract in Leverkusen after these two very successful years.
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After promotion to Bundesliga North 2 in the summer of 1975, Bayer 04 are fighting relegation just eight months later. The club expects full commitment from everyone in this precarious situation. Promotion coach Manfred Rummel is to give up his main job as a teacher at the Mülheim special school and become a full-time coach at Bayer 04. The coach, who is very popular with the team, does not see himself in a position to fulfil the club's request. Despite a 2-0 home win against SpVgg Erkenschwick, Manfred Rummel is put on gardening leave by "mutual agreement".
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Bayer 04, already been promoted to the 1st Oberliga West, played friendly after friendly in the second half of May 1951. And that continued throughout the following month.
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Jacek Krzynowek was born on 15 May 1976 in Kamiensk, Poland, and grew up as a typical country boy. He spent his childhood less in structured training sessions and more on simple pitches, where he spent hours playing football with older boys. He realised early on that he had exceptional shooting power and enormous stamina. But for a long time, he didn't appreciate just how much talent he had. While others dream of a great career, professional football initially seems like a distant world to him that he only knows from television.
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