Werks11 Magazine - Hans-Peter Lehnhoff interview

Hans-Peter Lehnhoff has been loyal to Bayer 04 for 23 years. He helped write several chapters in the club's history during his playing days and has experienced many more as team liaison manager. In that role he has been involved with Werkself organisational affairs such as hotel bookings and event coordination since 1999. The 53-year-old did not just make a name for himself in Leverkusen. Lehnhoff is still greatly revered at FC Royal Antwerp. He was voted the best player in the club's history on the 125-year anniversary of the oldest football club in Belgium. Hans-Peter played his last professional game for Bayer 04 at the age of 48. Read on for more interesting facts from the interview in the new Werks11 Magazine. The ninth edition came out last week.

Antwerp

My second home. My time at Royal Antwerp was the best of my playing career. Firstly, because I was successful on the pitch. Also, I really liked the mentality of the people. They are incredibly open and warm and they know how to enjoy life. They know there are more important things in life than football. For example, good food and drink. I still feel close affection for the people of Antwerp – and it's the same the other way round. Around 1,000 people from Antwerp visit the BayArena each year. I'm expecting some bigger groups for the match against Schalke. I'm very proud of that. Of course, they enjoy the football here. But they also enjoy meeting up with me again.

Wonder goal

I can think of two. First, there was my goal in the 3-1 win in the European Cup Winners Cup semi-final in 1993. It was just a penalty but as Antwerp had lost 1-0 in the first leg at Spartak Moscow that meant the goal on 86 minutes put us through to the final at Wembley Stadium. The pressure was incredible. One of my best goals was for Bayer 04 against Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1996: Dirk Heinen punted the ball up the pitch, Erik Meijer headed it on and I've volleyed it into the roof of the net from about 25 yards out.

Painter and decorator

The apprenticeship was great fun although I would have preferred to go to school longer back then. During my education I earned money playing football. As I made it into the first team as a 16-year-old I earned 400 Deutschmarks a month. Alemannia Mariadorf also paid for my driving lessons. And they paid for my first car. In terms of painting and decorating: I still do the painting at home. If I see a patch on the wall it has to be dealt with straight away as I'm pretty fastidious.

Pair of wingers

I had a great time with Jan Heintze. We were both 35 back then in the middle of the 90s and probably the oldest pair of wingers in the world – as Christoph Daum used to joke. Jan played on the left and I was on the right. Daum got everything out of us he could, almost down to the last reserves of energy. But we showed we could perform really well even in view of our advanced years.

Football tennis

A great game. It's got everything you need in a normal game of football: A feel for the ball, dexterity, stamina, coordination and great vision. You have to make the right decision in a split second. Unfortunately, I'm finding it ever harder to find opponents. Most of them just don't want to play against me. Even the pros from the first team squad avoid me. I think it's great whenever our physio Hansjörg Schneider accepts my challenge – even though he hardly stands a chance. I'm just good at football tennis. I like to remember the legendary encounters with Sami Hyypiä. They were always really close games. You just carried on until you ran out of steam. Always up to 21, three touches – sometimes the matches lasted two hours. Neither of us like losing at all. I really had to fight hard against Sami.