Words by Mark Orton | Published 21.10.2026Once in a generation, there is a football club that impresses itself on the public consciousness.
For a glorious two-year period in the mid-1980s, Bayer Uerdingen exploded from nowhere like a supernova to the top echelon of German and European football before sliding back into oblivion. It was a story that combined New Testament style ‘miracles’ and Cold War intrigue that would not have been out of place in a John Le Carré novel.
The modest club from Krefeld in the industrial Rhineland of Germany situated between Düsseldorf and Duisburg that was until then better known for its industrial heritage as the ‘Velvet and Silk’ city, won the DFB Pokal in 1985 by shocking Bavarian giants Bayern Munich in the final.
Bayer consolidated that success by reaching the semi-final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup the following season, and an unprecedented third-place Bundesliga finish in that same campaign led to another European journey that ended in the third round of the UEFA Cup against Barcelona.
That game in the Camp Nou proved to be the zenith of the club’s time in the sun, as they entered a spiral of decline that currently sees Uerdingen in the regional Oberliga Niederrhein, in the fifth tier of German football.
The club were formed as Uerdingen on 17 November 1905 by twelve young men, before merging with Krefeld in the 1930s.
In 1953 with the club in the fourth tier of West German football, Uerdingen merged with the works’ team of the chemical conglomerate Bayer, whose factory in Krefeld was the company’s second biggest in Germany, taking the name Bayer 05 Uerdingen, sister club to Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
In 1971 Bayer Uerdingen moved into Krefeld’s Grotenburg Stadium that had been originally inaugurated in September 1927, as it took its first steps in the professional pyramid in West German football in the Regionalliga West.
Initially the stadium’s 18,000 capacity was sufficient for the club’s needs in the regional divisions, but with promotion to the 2 Liga Nord in 1974 and aspirations of playing in the top-flight, a new South Stand was built.
It was completed in time for 22,000 to watch the promotion-clinching play-off on 22 June 1975 that saw them defeat Pirmasens and take their place in the Bundesliga for the very first time.
The next decade saw Bayer become the quintessential yo-yo club as they bounced between the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. Their first foray into the Bundesliga lasted just one season, but they quickly returned three years later for another two-season sojourn. Their promotion in 1983 was longer lasting as they spent an unbroken thirteen seasons in the top-flight.
In 1985 Bayer Uerdingen earned their greatest honour to date when they won the DFB Pokal – the West German equivalent of the FA Cup – beating Bayern Munich in Berlin.
Under the stewardship of the wily Karl-Heinz Feldkamp, who later led Kaiserslautern to the Bundesliga title, Bayer made their way past VfB Oldenburg, Fortuna Düsseldorf, SC Geislingen and Werder Bremen before beating 1FC Saarbrücken in the semi-final.
The final against a star-studded Bayern Munich outfit featuring such luminaries as Lothar Mathaüs, Klaus Augenthaler and Søren Lerby was played on 26 May 1985 in front of 70,398 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, the first time it had been held there since 1942 and since when the showpiece event had peregrinated about cities across Germany.
Dieter Hoeness opened the scoring for favourites Bayern in the eighth minute, before Horst Feilzer responded with an equaliser for Uerdingen a minute later. Aptly enough on Pentecost Sunday, Wolfgang Schäfer sealed the ‘Miracle of Berlin’ with a 66th minute winner.
One little known footnote to Bayer’s triumph was that one of the team’s heroes that day was a 26-year-old Welshman called Wayne Thomas who came on as an 82nd minute substitute for Lárus Guðmundsson.
He almost didn’t make it after tearing ligaments in a league fixture the week before, but after intense treatment across the border in Holland, Thomas took his place on the bench despite not being fully fit.
Thomas first went to West Germany as an 18-year-old seeking to make a living as a professional footballer, playing for clubs such as Aachen, Hannover and Kickers Offenbach as well as Uerdingen in making over 200 Bundesliga appearances, and after retiring he continued to live and work in Germany.
The brother of Dean Thomas who captained Notts County in the early 1990s, he was born in Coventry but qualified for Wales through his Welsh father and grandfather and was even called up for a couple of international squads but both times was denied the chance to make his debut through injury.
Bayer 05 Uerdingen's Friedhelm Funkel lifts the DFB-Pokal trophy in that famous win in 1985.
Photo Credit: 11 FreundeBayer Uerdingen began their first-ever foray into European competition with an easy first round tie against Zurrieq of Malta.
In the first leg in the newly opened Ta Qali stadium on 17 September, two goals from Friedhelm Funkel in the first 34 minutes sent Karl-Heinz Feldkamp’s side on the way to an easy victory that was sealed by Lárus Guðmundsson’s goal three minutes from time.
The relaxed vibe taken for this late summer trip to the Mediterranean holiday island was reflected by the players’ wives joining the party for the trip. The second leg a fortnight later in Krefeld was a formality as Bayer thrashed the hapless Maltese 9–0.
At home for the first leg of the second round at the end of October against Galatasaray, Uerdingen had a bumper capacity crowd of 27,000 thanks to the thousands of Turkish gastarbeiters who flocked to the town to watch their compatriots in action.
Indeed, it was estimated that four-fifths of the crowd were there to support the visitors. Despite being outnumbered, it was the home fans who went home happy as goals from Wolfgang Schäfer and Rudi Bommer secured a 2–0 win.
In the second leg in Istanbul, Bayer took the lead with a deliciously curled free-kick from Matthias Herget after 26 minutes, and although Galatasaray equalised in the second half, the Germans comfortably went through.
The truncated nature of the European Cup Winners’ Cup meant that victory over the Turks meant Bayer were now in the last eight of the competition where they were drawn against Dynamo Dresden in a rare East meets West German footballing encounter.
The Dresden side coached by Klaus Sammer formed the backbone of the East German national team with stars such as Ulf Kirsten, Matthias Sammer (son of the coach) and Ralf Minge, and were considered clear favourites to win the tie.
For Matthias Herget, the quarter-final against Dynamo Dresden meant an emotional return to East Germany, where he was born on 14 November 1955 in the town of Annaberg-Bucholz before moving to the West with his family as a child before the construction of the Berlin Wall.
The first leg in the Dynamo Stadion, drew a large crowd of 40,000, with fans coming from all over the German Democratic Republic to watch the game in the hope of putting one over on their western neighbours.
Bayer’s defence held firm until the 55th minute, when a lapse led to Frank Lippman opening the scoring for the home side. Hans-Uwe Pilz added a second to give Dresden a healthy lead to take across the border.
Two weeks later on 9 March 1986 in Krefeld, Bayer started the second leg in the worst way possible when Minge headed the visitors in front in the second minute.
A Wolfgang Funkel equaliser briefly revived Uerdingen’s hopes, but goals from Lipmann and the unfortunate Rudi Bommer who put the ball through his own goal, meant that by half-time the 5–1 aggregate deficit appeared to be beyond salvation.
Uerdingen and Dresden captains shake hands before the 1985-86 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final.
Photo Credit: Ostdeutsche AllgemeineWith German broadcasters showing the match live on television rather than Bayern Munich’s European Cup duel with RSC Anderlecht the same night, coach Feldkamp was conscious of his side embarrassing themselves further in front of an 18 million-strong national audience – although this perversely worked to restrict the attendance in the Grotenburg to a well below capacity 18,000.
In his half-time team talk he urged his players to get stuck in and at least limit the damage. He told them, ‘OK, we’re out, but let us bid farewell to the Euro Cup with dignity.’
Their cause was also helped by an injury to the Dresden goalkeeper Bernd Jakubowski who had to be substituted at the break following a collision with Wolfgang Funkel.
Dynamo’s usual reserve goalkeeper Jörg Kimpel had been suspended shortly before the game after meeting relatives from West Germany and was prevented from travelling for the game in Krefeld as the club considered that there was a risk of him defecting.
As a result, Klaus Sammer had to turn to rookie third-choice keeper Jens Ramme to come on for his debut.
Bayer took Feldkamp at his word, starting the second half on the front-foot and exploited the disarray in the Dresden defence by scoring 13 minutes after the restart with a Wolfgang Funkel penalty after Lárus Guðmundsson was fouled.
The Icelandic striker quickly added another goal five minutes later to bring the score level on the night at 3–3. They still trailed 5–3 on aggregate, and with the Dresdeners having scored an all-important away goal, winning the tie still seemed well beyond the side from Krefeld.
Yet, when Minge deflected the ball into his own goal to put Uerdingen ahead on the night, the home crowd sensed that against all hope and probability, a miracle was still possible.
Panic set in to the Dynamo defence as Bayer scented blood and attacked relentlessly and substitute Dietmar Klinger levelled the aggregate score with 12 minutes to go.
When Wolfgang Schäfer was felled in the box three minutes later, Wolfgang Funkel stepped up to convert his second spot-kick of the evening to complete his hat-trick and send the Grotenburg crowd into delirium.
Schäfer completed the 7–3 rout with virtually the last kick of the game, and when the final whistle went the players were carried off on the shoulders of ecstatic fans who had invaded the pitch. The game was later voted by the readers of German football magazine 11 Freunde as ‘the best football match of all-time’.
A disbelieving Klaus Sammer said after the game, ‘during the second half, fear reigned in our defence,’ and to compound Dresden’s humiliation, their striker Frank Lippman slipped out of the team hotel that night and defected to West Germany, going on to play for 1. FC Nürnberg and Waldhof Mannheim.
The run eventually came to an end at the semi-final stage against Atlético de Madrid. In the first leg on at the Estadio Vicente Calderón, a durable Atléti side coached by Luis Aragones did their best to bully the Germans in front of a crowd of 45,000.
Despite the home team having the best of the play, it took the Spaniards until the 79th minute to open the scoring through Julio Prieto and it was only thanks to a fine display from Uerdingen keeper, Werner Vollack that the game remained in the balance with the return in Krefeld to come.
This time Bayer could count on a full house of 27,000 fans in the Grotenburg on 16 April. Alas, this time there would be no miracle as an early penalty from Juan José Rubio and a 28th minute goal from Luis Mario Cabrera put Atlético firmly in the driving seat, and although Herget’s goal 10 minutes after the restart briefly offered hope, it was soon extinguished when Julio Prieto scored a third for the Spanish side three minutes later, and Guðmundsson’s effort in in the 64th minute was no more than a consolation goal.
Defeat against Atlético was not the end of Bayer’s season, despite a chronic fixture backlog, Feldkamp’s side finished the season strongly to climb to third in the Bundesliga table behind Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen and qualify for the following season’s UEFA Cup.
For Matthias Herget, there was still more excitement after the season ended. The Sweeper was selected by Franz Beckenbauer for the West Germany squad for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, and despite only starting the final group game against Denmark, ended up with a silver medal as his country finished as runners-up to Argentina.
Matthias Herget and Miguel Ángel Ruiz in front of referee Neil Midgleý during the pennant exchange in the match between Uerdingen and Atlético Madrid.
Photo Credit: Rheinische PostBayer again met East German opposition in the first round of the 1986-87 UEFA Cup in the shape of Carl Zeiss Jena. In the first leg at the Grotenburg, Bayer won comfortably 3–0.
They were sent on their way by a teenage Oliver Bierhoff, who later leapt to fame by scoring the winner for Germany in the final of Euro 96, who converted after 37 minutes. The club’s record Bundesliga appearance maker and scorer, Friedhelm Funkel doubled the advantage shortly before the interval, before, a 73rd minute Rudi Bommer goal confirmed an easy victory.
The Westerners won the second leg in East Germany even more emphatically, 4–0 with goals from Matthias Herget, Stefan Kuntz – another hero of Euro 96 – Atli Evaldsson and Bommer.
Uerdingen made another trip behind the Iron Curtain for the Second Round against Polish side Widzew Łodź. They went to the first leg in Łodź minus their teenage star Marcel Witeczek – the club’s youngest-ever player at the age of 17 years nine months and 21 days.
Born in Tychy, Poland, Witeczek left the communist country with his family as a 13-year-old on an authorised holiday abroad, but they claimed asylum in West Germany and so he was refused a visa by the Polish authorities. Bayer were relieved to come home from Poland with a 0–0 draw after Wieslaw Wraga missed a penalty for the home side.
In the home leg, Bayer took an early 26th minute lead thanks to an own-goal from Marek Dziuba and doubled that advantage when Bierhoff scored in the 81st minute. They could even afford to squander a penalty four minutes later as they secured a mouthwatering Third Round tie against Catalan giants Barcelona.
Thanks to building work over the summer, the Krefelders were able to welcome a Barça team now boasting Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes to an enlarged Grotenburg with a capacity of 30,000.
However, it was the Barcelona wingers Francisco Carrasco and Marcos who proved the most effective players on the pitch, providing the assists for Roberto and Hughes to score and give the visitors the spoils.
Bayer Uerdingen’s brief dalliance with the European elite ended on a cold winter’s night at a sparsely populated Camp Nou on 10 December 1986. The Germans thought they had found a way back into the tie, but Bierhoff’s goal on the hour was disallowed for offside, and two goals from Barcelona substitute Juan Carlos Rojo in a six-minute spell midway through the second half ended their dreams.
In 1995 Bayer withdrew its financial backing from the football section of the club, who were renamed KFC Uerdingen, not a corporate link-up with Colonel Sanders but Krefelder Fußball Club in a nod to the club’s location.
Operating in straightened financial circumstances, KFC were relegated at the end of the following season as they began their tumble down the German footballing pyramid, dropping as low as the sixth tier between 2008-2011.
After a mini-revival which saw the club promoted back to the Bundesliga 3 in 2018, the club were forced to leave the Grotenburg Stadium as it did need not meet the safety standards of the league, peregrinating instead around stadia in nearby cities as there were none available in Krefeld.
However, when the club went into administration in 2021, they were forcibly dropped down to the fourth tier, before dropping again into the Oberliga Niederrhein.
When a city government-funded plan to refurbish the stadium stalled, KFC fans took matters into their own hands.
A 450-strong fans group volunteered their own time and labour to get the rebuild completed and after a four-year exile, Uerdingen returned to the Grotenburg on 23 April 2022 with 2,000 in the ground that was still under reconstruction.
Despite the club’s slide down the divisions, KFC Uerdingen’s fans continue to be nothing if not resolute, as the club’s anthem ‘Red and Blue’ goes:
‘Everyone knows: Being your fan means being forgiving. And the next football festival at the Grotenburg Stadium is always just two weeks away’.
Barcelona v Bayer Uerdingen in the 1986-87 UEFA Cup.
Photo Credit: Imago