Season 1983/84: In terms of sport, the season is extremely exciting, which a look at the final table reveals. But things are also happening off the green lawn. A player’s agent causes a sensation – and some strange and frivolous stories.
Holger Klemme revolutionized the Bundesliga in a way that not everyone liked – because the business practices of the “inventor of the modern players’ agent”, as the “world” called him, were not only unusual but also always ruthless. Werder manager Willi Lemke could sing a song about the special approach Klemme chose in his campaigns – of course always solely in the interest of the professionals.
The man from Bad Godesberg saw his job as a player’s advisor as follows: “I’m fully committed to the boys – and of course they to me.” Early in his career he proved that Klemme was quite media-capable and eloquent when, when asked what he found erotic, he responded spectacularly and open-heartedly: “Two things: a successfully completed business that went exactly according to my plan and at both parts are satisfied without a drop of blood spilling. Second: slender women with large breasts.”
And then Holger Klemme had in the WDR program “I introduce myself!” his big performance. Live on TV, he revealed one of his incredible and ingenious tricks when negotiating with club representatives: “In the first half hour there are five rounds of beer with the intention of making me tired. But not with me. I always switch a few Glasses of Fernet Branca in between. The plant substances it contains break down alcohol again.”
Holger Klemme enjoyed his appearance on the talk show that day, where Willi Lemke and Michael Meier as well as Jimmy Hartwig were also guests. When Klemme was finally reprimanded for his business practices on the show, the controversial player’s agent reacted cleverly with a counter – and blurted out an explosive story about Willi Lemke. In 1983, the long-time manager of the Bundesliga club is said to have fired two national players who were completely desperate because they had no cash – from a red-light establishment in Graz – but not entirely altruistically.
Because the clever Lemke is said to have made a tough counter-demand for this favor in dire need: the immediate contract extension of the two coveted players, fixed on a beer mat of the establishment. The Bremen official later denied the story, but at the same time admitted: “My performance was a failure.”
Contrasted with the player agent’s performance. Holger Klemme advertised a profession that was still in its infancy at the time. But after this TV show at the latest, the men’s Bundesliga professionals pricked up their ears. They could all use someone like Klemme. The managers of the clubs, on the other hand, had their problems with Klemme. Michael Meier, who sat next to the player’s agent on the talk show at the time, later refused to work with him.
Wolfgang Kleff could have used a Holger Klemme in the 1983/84 season – because the former national keeper was angry. Fortuna did not want to extend his contract. In the last game of the season, the Düsseldorf goalkeeper was substituted in the 74th minute on the pretext of an injury – but then trotted happily around the Düsseldorf Rheinstadion. On the way, Kleff undressed bit by bit. He had already thrown his jersey, socks, shoes and gloves into the crowd when Kleff arrived in front of the grandstand, waving elatedly.
The goalkeeper slowly stopped, turned towards the field, straightened his legs, bent his upper body down and pulled down his pants in one go. Kleff’s bare buttocks shone slightly from left to right, wobbling right in the face of the enraged Fortuna President Bruno Recht. The goalkeeper’s dry comment afterwards: “I’ll give my last shirt to the fans, just my ass to some of the others!” What a show from the man they all just called “Otto”.
And anyway: A season like this is almost as rare as winning the lottery. In the end, the difference between the champions VfB Stuttgart and Bremen in fifth place was just three points – the season finale up to the 33rd matchday was correspondingly exciting. Since the VfB succeeded prematurely his masterpiece. Stuttgart won 2-1 at Werder and won the title because Hamburger SV lost 2-0 at home to Eintracht Frankfurt at the same time. VfB had a much better goal difference than HSV.
Despite the tight situation at the top of the table, football Germany mourned a real final, because VfB and HSV met in the Neckarstadion on the last day of the game. The Hamburgers won 1-0 against the party-drunk Stuttgart and consolidated their second place. In the end, both the champions, HSV and third-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach had 48:20 points on their account. Bayern finished fourth and were just one point behind at 47.
After winning the title, there was a state of emergency in Stuttgart. It was celebrated like crazy. Lord Mayor Manfred Rommel was very grateful to President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder: “Under your presidency, VfB rose from the deep valley to the clear heights!” You fell into each other’s arms, toasted each other and were left out. As always, only one person held the fort: Willi Schöttle, the VfB stadium steward, guarded the catacombs very closely, much to the journalists’ chagrin. They had long since given him his nickname: the “bull biter from the concrete bunker”.
In the end, the Bundesliga lost one of its big stars. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge went to Inter Milan. For a long time it was hoped, especially in Munich, that the Bayern striker would change his mind despite the offer worth millions. And when the “Abendzeitung” suddenly announced that Rummenigge’s five-year-old son André had said: “Mama mia, I don’t like spaghetti”, people were already celebrating. For free. A very high, double-digit million sum was transferred to FC Bayern. A record transfer for many years. But Rummenigge left Munich with a crying eye: “It’s like first love – you don’t forget it your whole life!”
Finally, one of these curious stories from almost 60 years of the Bundesliga. A strange postal item arrived at the Gladbach office this season: the old army service regulation 12, “Instructions for handling horses and for training riders” from 1937! Very strange. Or not. Because the letter was addressed to the Borussen club magazine: “Fohlenecho”!
