News in brief: Herzog celebrates, Ramelow recounts unusual anecdote

After five years in the Bundesliga with Fortuna Düsseldorf, and in spite of lucrative offers – including from Sevilla -, Dieter Herzog opted to drop down to the second division and join Bayer 04 in 1976. The crucial reason: Leverkusen gave the 1974 World Cup winner the prospect of working with the club after his playing career.

In his third season with the Black and Reds, the key player and his teammates succeeded in achieving promotion to the top flight. And, in the first Bundesliga campaign in the club’s history, the 33-year-old attacker was a regular starter for Bayer 04 in 1979/80. Herzog ended his playing career after the club stayed up and, in 1983, he joined the scouting department and remained in that role until 2012. Herzog celebrated his 74^th birthday on Wednesday. Bayer 04 wishes Dieter: Many happy returns!

Paulinho is 20

Paulinho also had his big day on 15 July as he was 20 years old on Wednesday. The Brazilian forward is currently recovering from injury in rehab so is unable to enjoy his holiday to the maximum. He suffered a torn cruciate in training in the week before the DFB Cup final. Bayer 04 wish him a speedy recovery and many happy returns.

Social media greetings from the players

Rambo Özcan is relaxing on Lake Constance, Nadiem Amiri and Karim Bellarabi are spending their time off in Greece: The crowded fixture list at the end of the season after the the lockdown and the restart in the middle of May meant a heavy workload for the Werkself players. Accordingly, Moussa Diaby and Co. are currently enjoying a well-deserved two-week holiday before returning to training on 23 July ahead of the rest of the season. The first, and hopefully not final, step is the Europa League Round of 16 second leg meeting with Glasgow Rangers on Thursday, 6 August with an 18.55 CET kick off.  Bayer04.de presents a couple of holiday insights:

Ramelow’s transfer anecdote

This story is more than unusual: Carsten ‘Calle’ Ramelow’s transfer to Bayer 04 was, in part, due to a member of his family. “Reiner Calmund (the Bayer 04 general manager at the time, ed.) was frequently in Berlin. He was in the hotel where my mother-in-law worked. She worked on serving breakfast and Calli was having his breakfast there,” reported the former player in an interview with Spox and Goal.

Ramelow added: “Of course, he was there for a long time and he had an extensive breakfast. My mother-in-law put a newspaper article about me on his table and said: ‘He’d be one for Leverkusen.’” The Berliner signed for Leverkusen in January 1996 and went on to play for Germany during his twelve years at Bayer 04 – so his mother-in-law certainly appears to have played a not insignificant role in that.

100 years of kicker

The sports journal kicker has reported on football for several generations. The first edition of the newspaper, founded by Walther Bensemann, appeared on 14 July 1920. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, the founder had to leave kicker due to his Jewish origins and he died eighteen months later in exile in Switzerland. Eleven years after Bensemann’s death, the journal was closed down by the government and the first post-war edition of kicker only appeared in 1951.

Since then, the newspaper has primarily reported on football – on a national and international level – as well as on other sports such as Formula 1 and eSports. In the print editions, which appear twice a week, the kicker reports on the Werkself as well as on their own app. The journal celebrated its 100th anniversary on Tuesday. Many congratulations from Bayer 04!

Are you Völler or Bender?

Bayer 04 has come up up something special for Werkself fans. Via the club’s Instagram account, you can complete an interactive test to see which Bayer 04 star you are. Whether it’s a current or former Werkself player? Try it out! Click HERE and follow the story (only available in German via a mobile).