Stories: April fool!

The morning training session was quiet and normal. As on most Wednesdays, there was extended shooting practice at two goals with shots from the edge of the penalty area, from crosses or in one-on-ones with the goalkeeper. The coach Reinhard Saftig was standing near my goal and watching impassively. Suddenly Franco Foda grabbed his thigh after a shot and started to limp. "I'm going in to see Tscholli, I think I've torn something." He slowly left the training pitch. Coach Saftig looked concerned.

Less than five minutes later it struck Ulf Kirsten. And there was deathly silence on the training ground when Andreas Thom fell to the ground with pain on his face and then went back to the dressing room. Reinhard Saftig was tearing his hair out and I heard a mumbled, "What are we going to do now?", next to my goal. He ended the training session and went straight to our physio Dieter Trzolek.

Saftig stormed down the corridor, entered Tscholli's room – and there were the three "injured players" sitting on the bench, grinning at him and shouting: "April fool!" The coach was hugely relieved as the selection problems had suddenly evaporated. The weekend brought a 1-1 draw in Cologne a couple of days later defeat on penalties in the DFB Cup semi-final in Mönchengladbach. We had to wait another year before making it to the cup final.