Enlarge image

Ulrik le Fevre in the Gladbach jersey 1970

Photo:

imago images/Sven Simon

In every footballer's life there is THAT one goal.

A goal that you never forget, regardless of whether you scored it in the district league or in the Champions League.

A moment that makes you believe that it was all worth it, all the hard work, all the hours of training.

For this moment.

Ulrik le Fevre experienced this moment on October 23, 1971. He experienced it in the 52nd minute of the Bundesliga game Borussia Mönchengladbach against FC Schalke 04.

The foal years

It is the twelfth matchday of the season, the duel between the reigning German champions from Mönchengladbach and the league leaders from Gelsenkirchen.

It's one of those days when the Gladbachers succeed in everything, the team always has days like that in those times.

These are the years in which the team's nickname is born: the Foals.

On this October afternoon they are galloping to their hearts' content again, they have already overrun Schalke at half time, the score is 5-0, Jupp Heynckes twice, Hartwig Bleidick once, Günter Netzer with a penalty kick, le Fevre has made the half-time score perfect with 5-0.

Like Rastelli

Then comes this 52nd minute, Netzer shoots low from the edge of the penalty area towards the goal, the ball gets stuck on a Schalke defender.

Le Fevre picks up the rebound, lobs it over Schalke's Klaus Fichtel, picks it up again from the air and also lifts it over his second opponent, Jürgen Sobieray.

The ball is still in the air and has not yet touched the ground again, when le Fevre is there again and shoots a volley with his right into the far corner of goalkeeper Norbert Nigbur.

A goal like Rastelli, acrobatically beautiful.

The ARD Sportschau introduced the Goal of the Year competition for the first time this year.

Le Fevre's goal is voted Goal of the Year 1971 by an overwhelming majority of television viewers.

It is by no means the only title that le Fevre has won in his career.

In 1969 he moved from Vejle BK to the Lower Rhine, establishing a Danish dynasty on the Bökelberg. Later Henning Jensen and Allan Simonsen would make the golden seventies in Mönchengladbach seem even more golden.

Masters in the first year

In Gladbach's first year, le Fevre became champions.

After the Bundesliga initially seemed like a culture shock to him.

In Denmark they had trained twice a week, enough time for le Fevre to complete his teaching degree.

In Germany, however, Hennes Weisweiler trains twice - but a day.

Le Fevre needs a few weeks to acclimatize and not only experiences the first heyday in Mönchengladbach, he shapes it.

Champion 1970, champion 1971. Netzer, Heynckes, Berti Vogts, Hacki Wimmer, Luggi Müller, Christian Kulik: If they have a good day, then God bless their opponents.

4:0 against Hertha BSC, 3:0 over HSV, 5:0 against Kaiserslautern, 6:0 against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, 5:0 against Hannover, 5:1 against Alemannia Aachen, 7:1 over BVB, 6 :2 against Eintracht Braunschweig.

If Gladbach suffers a defeat at home, then something like the one in the home game against Werder Bremen has to happen when the post breaks and the game is then scored 2-0 for the guests.

In top form during the rifle throwing game

In October 1971, Inter Milan came to the Bökelberg, the game became famous because Milan's Robert Boninsegna was hit by a Coke can thrown from the audience, then fell to the ground as if dead and the game was subsequently canceled.

The game has lost its name: the can throwing game.

In these 90 minutes, le Fevre is on the move like a will-o'-the-wisp, he repeatedly escapes the kicks of the iron-hard Inter defenders, the opponents may have famous names from the century game between Germany and Italy in 1970: Tarcisio Burgnich, Giacinto Facchetti, they have no chance against them these young Danes.

Le Fevre scores two goals, Gladbach wins 7-1, the striker later says it was "the best game a German team has ever played against an Italian team."

The cannon throw destroys everything.

Masters in Belgium, in Denmark

After three years and 90 Bundesliga games, le Fevre leaves Borussia, he goes to Belgium, he takes the success with him, he becomes three-time Belgian champion.

In the 1977 European Cup, he met his old club in the quarter-finals.

Le Fevre is there again, in a game for the Gladbach football history book, but this time on the opposite side.

Borussia won 1-0 in the second leg thanks to a goal from the back of the head from Wilfried Hannes.

Le Fevre ends his career at home, returns to Vejle and of course becomes champion again.

Afterwards he can finally take time for his students.

Le Fevre becomes what he studies, he becomes a teacher, later he also takes players under his wing, he advises the professionals Kasper Bögelund and Thomas Helveg, among others.

At the age of 77, le Fevre died on Saturday, a day of mourning for Borussia, on the same day the death of Friedhelm Frontzeck was announced, a member of the 1960 cup winning team and father of the later national player Michael Frontzeck, another former Gladbach football hero.

With the death of a former player, a piece of the great past always dies in Mönchengladbach.