For the 60th birthday
Rudi Völler turns 60 on Easter Monday. Because of the Corona crisis, the Leverkusen boss takes it easy. In contrast, in his successful career he had enough reason to celebrate.
Photo series with 15 pictures
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At the last “big” birthday, the football celebrities gave themselves the jack, this year the Corona pandemic denied one of the greatest personalities of German football a befitting break. But half as wild: Then Rudi Völler celebrates his 60th birthday on Easter Monday quite comfortably with spaghetti and wine with his wife Sabrina and his five children.
1990 World Champion
“I’m not that sad at all. I’m happy when I have my family with me,” the 1990 World Champion told Kicker magazine. Even before his 50th birthday, the native of Hesse emphasized: “I don’t need a big party. I am often in the center of attention” – before his wife surprised him with a huge surprise party. This cannot happen to him this time due to the blocked contact, only countless congratulations will flutter in via cell phone.
Rudi Völler became known nationwide in the DFB jersey. Between 1982 and 1994 he completed a total of 90 international matches, scoring 47 goals. (Source: imago images)
Because Völler has not only been the face of Bayer Leverkusen for years, he has also remained a popular figure in the football business, which is increasingly dominated by money and greed. “I’m still sitting across from the same person with whom I played a lot of jokes between 20 and 30,” said Völlers long-time national teammate Pierre Littbarski to the “kicker”. “Tante Käthe”, as the 90-time international was already known in his professional days because of his gray curly hair, experienced a lot in the football business.
Bundesliga top scorer and Champions League winner
As a player, he became the top scorer in the Bundesliga in 1983, Völler won the hearts of Tifosi at AS Roma, and in 1993 he won the Champions League throne with Olympique Marseille as the first German player. Germany’s soccer player of the year 1983 had a huge share in the coronation as world champion in 1990, and not only because of his penalty in the final.
In the World Cup final against Argentina, Völler (left) took the decisive penalty. (Source: imago images)
It should not be Völler’s last great service for German football. As team boss, the former world-class striker led the DFB selection, which was only traded as an outsider, to the final against Brazil (0: 2) at the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Since that summer the Republic has known that there is only “one Rudi Völler”.
“Völler is an absolute stroke of luck for German football,” said then DFB President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder and spoke from the soul of the football nation. Even public freaks like in his legendary “wheat beer” interview with ARD moderator Waldemar Hartmann in 2003, against referees or the video evidence, “Rudi Nazionale” was not resented. In the nationwide perception, the trained office clerk still has a stone on the board.
Managing Director at Bayer Leverkusen
After his return in 2005, he is already untouchable in Leverkusen. He has formed the “Club of his Heart” (Völler) into an established Champions League club. Only a national title was denied to him as a club official as well as in his playing time. “I won the important titles for that,” emphasizes the Werkself sports manager with a wink.
He still has a few years left for this, and he definitely wants to fulfill his contract by 2022. The honorary citizen of his hometown Hanau has so far left unanswered. Völler only reveals this much: “At 70, I’m definitely not sitting here in my beautiful office in the stadium.”
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