Reiner Calmund was a football manager, entertainer and expert. But above all he is one thing: an authentic rascal who, even at 75, doesn’t feel like taking a break.
“Moody” is the term that best describes Reiner Calmund like no other. Wherever the Brühl native appears with his Rhenish idiom, the best entertainment is guaranteed. No one can actually resist this extraordinary Calmundian charm. Probably also because no one else ever has a say. A faster tongue is extremely difficult to find.
Whenever Calmund enters the room, his presence cannot be ignored – he is always there for everyone. On Thursday (November 23rd, 2023) he will celebrate his 75th birthday. His energy continues to be exuberant and authentic. “I don’t feel like quitting yet,” he said recently.
A man from German television rounds
Calmund is still a verbal heavyweight; after all, he had already gotten rid of his excess physical pounds for health reasons for some time. It tipped the scales at 187 kilograms. Now, after a surgical stomach reduction, it is around 80 kilograms less. “It’s not genes. I just eat for pleasure,” Calmund once said after naming himself the “belly of the nation.”
Calmund has been a sought-after man on German TV for many years – whether in Sports-Talks, his own show (Big Boss) or in cooking shows: Anyone who invites “Calli” knows what they’re getting.
Younger people will only know him in this role and will wonder why the former freelancer for a daily newspaper (local sports) is even sitting there. But: This particularly entertaining ability was revealed more than 20 years ago during his time in the Bundesliga.
Traumas as “Vicecuses”
Calmund was also a solo entertainer in his long-ago job as a football manager. There he persistently built his reputation. He worked at Bayer 04 Leverkusen from 1976 – initially as a youth leader – until 2004 and turned a barely noticed second division team into a top Bundesliga team that also achieved international status. He was also able to demonstrate football expertise. “I was a youth coach myself before I swallowed the medicine ball,” he once said self-deprecatingly.
Rainer Calmund at the Champions League final in 2002
Calmund won the UEFA Cup in 1988 with coach Erich Ribbeck. But he never won the German championship. The tragic failure of the Werkself under coach Christoph Daum in Unterhaching in 2000, when Michael Ballack showed the entire tragedy of football in one game with his own goal on the last matchday, still haunts him today.
One point would have been enough for Calmund and his Leverkusen team to win the title. In the end there was a disastrous 0:2 to the underdog, which meant that the title “Vizekusen” could be used by the laughing competition for the third time. “That’s football. It can sometimes be cruel, unfair and inexplicable,” said Calmund.
And to make matters worse, more trauma followed in 2002. An additional runner-up, a 1:2 defeat in the Champions League final against Real Madrid and a 2:4 in the DFB Cup final against Schalke 04.
The man with the suitcase
The fact that his club was able to advance into these spheres was primarily due to Calmund. The Leverkusen manager was considered the man with the (money) suitcase. His practices were sometimes ominous, his regular trips to Brazil mysterious. And above all expensive – but sporty effective. Sloth is probably the right term for it.
Calmund once discovered this overseas football market for the entire league. Brazilian professional Tita, who had been negotiating with the Bayer 04 manager, called him “fat little bandito.” In addition to Tita, many of his top-class sporting compatriots such as Lucio and Paulo Sergio were awarded the Bavarian Cross.
Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Clamund was once again the fastest. He first signed Andreas Thom and then Ulf Kirsten. He had already given Matthias Sammer the ballpoint pen in his hand.
However, the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl did not want all players to move to a single Bundesliga club and communicated his discomfort to Bayer-AG. “You can’t just buy the GDR empty,” complained Kohl. Sammer then went to Stuttgart.
Calmund’s straightforward, direct style, which could no longer be used in this strict form in today’s commercialized professional football, brought him a lot of recognition – from which he still benefits today.
