Special Moments — Bayer Leverkusen

Rudi Völler had plenty to do in the

Rudi Völler had plenty to do in the hectic days before May 18, 1996: PR appointments here, TV interviews there.

hectic days before May 18, 1996: PR appointments here, TV interviews there. After 19 professional years at Offenbach, 1860, Bremen, Roma, Marseille and Leverkusen, the 36-year-old was preparing to retire. It was only natural that football celebrities would come for the great farewell match a few days later.

But before then, Völler and Bayer still had a small problem to solve: they had to avoid relegation. “A farewell with relegation — that simply could not happen,” he later summed up.

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Kaiserslautern, on the other hand, could have sent

Kaiserslautern, on the other hand, could have sent Bayer down.

Bayer down. A Lautern victory in Leverkusen and the Rhineland club, who until then had never finished higher than fifth, would have been gone after 27 years in the Bundesliga. Hardly anybody outside the BayArena would have mourned them.

Lautern’s players understood the stakes too. Yet what followed was one of the strangest relegation escapes in league history.

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At 1–0 the Leverkusen players stood aside as

At 1–0 the Leverkusen players stood aside as Uwe Wegmann wandered peacefully through midfield and scored.

Uwe Wegmann wandered peacefully through midfield and scored. Then, of all people, Markus Münch — who would return to Bayern after the season — launched the move that made survival possible. In the end Leverkusen stayed up and Lautern went down.

The scenes on the Bayer side were almost as emotional as those of the devastated Palatinate club. And with Christoph Daum arriving on July 1, 1996, a new era began immediately. The great irony remained: a clear act of unsporting behaviour had helped save Bayer Leverkusen from relegation and had condemned Kaiserslautern instead.

It was a very special moment indeed.

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