Harry Gniech was born in Leverkusen-Schlebusch on 14 October 1951. He became a member of Bayer 04 at the age of nine and he started playing football three years later. He progressed through all the youth teams and moved up to the amateur team. In 1973/74 his former U19 coach Friedhelm Renno, now coaching the Bayer 04 first team, brings him in for his first game with the senior team. He is substituted at half-time in the game and he remains in the amateur team up to 1978.
He comes to the attention of coach Willibert Kremer and he plays for the first team in the final five games of the 1977/78 campaign. Those five matches were all won and the team went into the next season full of confidence. Harry becomes a regular starter with the promotion side. He plays a total of 40 Bundesliga games for Bayer 04 and is the first homegrown Leverkusen player in the Bundesliga. He celebrates his 70th birthday this month. Many happy returns, Harry!
HERE are the best goals and moves by Harry Gniech on video.
Niko Kovac was born in Berlin on 15 October 1971. He joined Bayer 04 in 1996 from relegation-threatened second division club Hertha Berlin. After general manager Reiner Calmund asked him about his brother Robert’s ability, he also signs for Bayer 04 from second division FC Nürnberg. In Leverkusen this was the start of the rebuilding under coach Christoph Daum and the battle for the title and qualification for the Champions League. Niko twice finishes Bundesliga runner-up and third once in his three years at Bayer 04. He also starts in the club’s first Champions League match against the Belgian side Lierse SK. The defensive midfielder makes 77 Bundesliga appearances and scores 8 goals in three years.
After hanging up his boots, he started a very successful career as a coach and he is now at the helm of the French top-flight club AS Monaco after being the manager of Croatia, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich. His players include former Werkself star Kevin Volland. Niko is 50 this month. Happy birthday in the principality.
HERE are the best goals and moves by Niko Kovac on video.
Andrzej Buncol was born in Gleiwitz in Silesia on 21 September 1959. Andrzej started playing football there for the small club Piast Gliwice in the Polish industrial town. At the age of 18 he moved up to the first team where he played for two years. The top-flight Polish club Ruch Chorzow signed the technically gifted midfielder in 1979 for the first team. He immediately gained a regular berth there and made his debut for the Poland team. He played for Poland in all the games at the 1982 World Cup going out to the eventual World Cup winners Italy in the semi-finals. In the third-place play-off, the team led by world-class player Zbigniew Boniek beat France 3-2.
Show moreJan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker was born in Schleswig on 23 September 1984. He started his story as a footballer in the state of Schleswig-Holstein at the small village club with TSV Bollingstedt. When his parents moved to Bonn for work in 1995, he signed for SV Beuel 06, a club in the former Federal German capital of Bonn.
Show moreOn that day, the league game or championship football competition match, as it is was called back then, for TuS 04 Leverkusen, who were the football section of the future Bayer 04 Leverkusen for a long-term time, played on the Pitch on the Dhünn.
Show moreIn this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of September. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
Show more‘Los Galacticos’ were a collection of world famous players at Real Madrid. Names like Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham, Roberto Carlos, Raul and Iker Casillas are still familiar to every football fan today.
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