The Rundsporthalle was opened by the former Leverkusen mayor Wilhelm Dopatka, Dieter Kürten was the host at the opening event that included mini-football, music and dance. The singer Bata Illic, the duo Nina & Mike plus the Bayer 04 Veterans team led by goalkeeping legend Fredy Mutz provided an entertaining evening. Berti Vogts, Wolfgang Kleff and Wolfgang Fahrian were there along with Manfred Ommer, the Olympic medal winners Rita Wilden and Harald Norpoth and Olympic championr Willi Holdorf. A USA basketball team from the German Bundesliga played for ten minutes against the TuS 04 basketball side.
Just one month later, several of the downlighters at the Rundsporthalle fail during the first competitive match for the women's basketball side. The technicians are unable to effect a repair during an eight-minute break. Despite the reduced lighting, the match is concluded.
Up to February 2009, the sports hall was officially named the Wilhelm-Dopatka-Halle after the longstanding Leverkusen mayor. It was later renamed the Smidt Arena after a new sponsor. Since the takeover of the furniture store by the Ostermann company, the hall has been called the Ostermann Arena since October 2016.
Heiko Scholz was born on 7 January 1966 in Görlitz. His first club as a youth player was Dynamo Görlitz. From there, he moved up to the sports school in Dresden and played in the youth teams at SG Dynamo Dresden from 1978-1982. Not considered good enough, Scholle, as he was nicknamed, had to leave the sports school to play his last two youth years at ISG Hagenwerder. Via BSG Chemie Leipzig and 1.FC Lokomotive Leipzig, who Heiko won the DDR Pokal with in 1987 and he also reached the European Cup Winners' Cup final (a 1-0 defeat against Ajax), his path finally led him back to his favourite club, Dynamo Dresden. For one million Deutschmarks, the highest transfer fee ever paid for a player in the former GDR, he moved from Lok Leipzig to the capital of Saxony in 1990.
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Stefan Kießling was born on 25 January 1984 in Lichtenfels, Franconia. Even as a young boy, he spent countless hours on the football pitches of his home town, chasing after the ball and dreaming of playing football. His parents supported him, but they bring him up in a down-to-earth manner - hard work, honesty and modesty are values that characterise him from an early age. His talent became apparent early on, but his ambition was even more striking. Kießling always wants to improve, wants to give more than others.
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On Sunday 26 January 1936, the local derby between relegation-threatened BV Wiesdorf and league leaders SSV ‘Bayer’ Leverkusen took place in the first district league of the Rhein-Wupper district. On the old BV Wiesdorf pitch, where the Leverkusen job centre is today, 1,800 spectators gather to watch the match.
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It is Friday, 31 January 1986, the derby in Cologne is coming up and we're full of confidence after the home win against Hamburg SV a week earlier, having turned a 2-0 deficit at the break into a 3-2 victory. In particular, the Greek amateur player Minas Hantzidis, who came on as a half-time substitute, turned the game around. Two goals from Bum-kun Cha and a penalty from Christian Schreier gave us two important points in the battle for a UEFA Cup place. We are one point behind the North Germans in fifth place in the table, six points ahead of our neighbours from Cologne.
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In this video you can see impressive and important goals in Bayer 04 history from the month of January. It's not always about the beauty of the goals, but also a reminder of special games and players.
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