Episode 12 ’The Million Deutschmark man’ A Striker’s story England hero special guest Tony Woodcock (Active 1974-90)

Welcome to the BvB London fan club podcast as every week the focus of the show will be on exploring a facet of Borussia Dortmund life by talking to experts and former participants of the club's life, like players, fans, journalists who have covered the club and functionaries and experts and thus make our BvB more accessible to non-German speakers in particular.

 

On today's episode, fan club president Ben welcomes BVB fan Mark Sheppard and Tony Woodcock a former striker whose clubs include Arsenal, 1 FC Köln and Nottingham Forest. Tony also won 42 England caps scoring 16 goals for the England national team including at the FIFA World cup 1982 in Spain. Playing 432 games at elite level, Woodcock scored a total of a stunning 139 goals. Tony won the European cup, now UEFA Champions League in 1979 with Nottingham Forest having already won the 1978 English first division, now renamed Premier League, title with the same club. A recent poll of Arsenal fans ranked Woodcock 48th in the all-time list of Arsenal's best players. The prolific striker also played for during two stints with 1 FC Köln in the Bundesliga. Tony now runs his own financial business and is a father of four. Topics on the show: 

 

1 The beginnings in football and Nottingham Forest, how he came to be a pro footballer, his debut, working under Brian Clough, winning the European cup, the ascend from the second tier to champions, an unparalleled achievement in English football, players who made the biggest impression plus loan spells with Lincoln CIty under Graham Taylor and Doncaster Rovers. 

 

2 The move to the Bundesliga and a record signing for 1 FC Köln. A massive welcome by 10.000 supporters in Cologne. Why a club like Cologne? Former team mates Dieter Müller, Toni Schumacher and Pierre Littbarski and Bernd Schuster,  the 79-80 DFB Pokal final. 81-82 just missed out on the title to then European Cup (now UEFA Champions league) winners HSV by 3 points, top scorer at 1 FC Köln with 15 goals. 

 

3 Arsenal transfer

What attracted him about Arsenal, scoring 5 in one game v Aston Villa, a goal tally of 56 goals a great achievement, that North London rivalry, the great characters that stood out Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Rocky Rocastle, George Graham unforgettable stories from Highbury.

 

4  Back to 1 FC Köln

Friends and teammates including soon to be BVB stars Thomas 'Icke' Haessler, Fleming Poulsen, Juergen Kohler all BVB stars later, Stefan Engels, the Allofs brothers, an injury and friendship with Bundesliga stars of the time like Marcel Raducanu plus why the connection with 1.FC Köln and the people of Cologne is so strong.

 

5  A sensational England career  Kevin Keegan, playing Germany at the FIFA World Cup, memories of Terry Butcher, Bryan Robson, Bobby Robson the team coach, highlights of an international career playing against some of the greatest stars of World football including Zico and Maradona. 

 

You can find the fan club at the usual social media tags. We hope you enjoyed the show, remember to send us your comments, share the show with friends and to apply for tickets contact the club via the website which is borussiadortmundlondon.co.uk or join the London BvB community at our online group at Facebook.com/borussiadortmundfanclubengland. During the season you can also come to watch a game at our meet-up Stammtisch at the Naughty Bar, just off Oxford Street, in Cleveland street London.

 

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