Ulf Kirsten: Assauer’s favourite enemy. Leverkusen striker Ulf Kirsten was one of the deadliest scorers of the 1990s and a personified Schalke nightmare. In 18 Bundesliga matches against the Blues, “der Schwatte” scored ten times.
Once, he did even more damage: in a 0–0 draw on 6 December 1997, he body-checked Thomas Linke so hard that Linke had to be carried off. Manager Rudi Assauer exploded in the tunnel afterwards. Christoph Daum cut in immediately, the argument became legendary, and the clip has lived on ever since.