Aich's speaker Wolfgang Lankes stops after 20 years

Created: 03/25/2022, 16:03

There was a jersey with signatures from FC Aich.

On the photo are (from left) Hans Schwarz, Wolfgang Lankes Gerhard Schuster and Bastian Jaschke.

© FC Aich

Wolfgang Lankes has been on the soccer fields in the region for over 30 years.

Now the veteran of FC Aich stops - at least with the men.

Fürstenfeldbruck

– For two decades, the Lankes brothers helped shape football in the Fürstenfeldbruck district.

Partly together, partly separately, Fabian, Wolfgang and Martin Lankes caused a sensation on the pitch.

Wolfgang Lankes has now ended his career at FC Aich at the age of 39.

With a farewell game, he drew a line under his time in men's football - but he doesn't want to give it up completely.

He knew that the club had planned something for his departure, but of course not exactly what.

"The surprise was so successful.

I will never forget it.” Numerous former companions such as Andi Neumayer, Flo Baier, Christian Rodenwald and Christian Obermeier attended his farewell game.

It goes without saying that the old times together were then recalled for many hours in the clubhouse.

Bayern didn't want him, he didn't want to go to the lions

For more than three decades, Wolfi, as everyone calls him, had nothing in his free time other than football.

He laced up his football boots for the first time in the F-Jugend at FC Emmering, only to switch to the then large sports club in the district town a year later.

And who knows, maybe the Brucker would have made the leap to one of the two traditional Munich clubs and thus perhaps to the professional camp.

During the C youth Lankes completed a trial with both the "Blue" and the "Red".

"Sixty would have taken me," Wolfi recalls, a little amused.

"As a Bayern fan, I didn't want to go there after all.

When the rejection came from Säbenerstrasse, it was difficult for me to go to the lions after I had already turned them down.” And so he stayed with the district.

In his youth he trained under Bayern coach Holger Seitz

Lankes experienced his most successful time at the Brucker Sportclub, when the district town club under President Albrecht Huber started to fly high and played with the first team in the Bavarian league and the second in the state league.

Lankes, who trained as an office clerk in Huber's company, has fond memories of his trainers Peter Gebele, Udo Schunn and Holger Seitz.

In addition to hard training, there was always a lot of fun at the annual training camps in Turkey.

"The bartender couldn't believe that we usually won our training games against teams from China or Russia, since we were always the last ones to leave the bar the night before," says the 39-year-old with a laugh.

After a player revolt, he moved from Olching to FC Aich

Lankes, basically a down-to-earth player who had little intention of moving to other clubs, followed his brother Martin to SC Olching at the age of 25.

The three Lankes brothers stayed here for a year and a half – Fabian had also moved to Olching in the meantime.

After a player revolt, Wolfgang Lankes took a six-month break to join the district league club FC Aich, like his two brothers before him.

Aich has now been the sporting home of the Lankes brothers for over a decade.

"Unfortunately, we never managed to get promoted with the club," says Lankes.

Once Aich failed against Garmisch in the relegation.

"Nevertheless, I've had some wonderful years here with great camaraderie," said the long-standing Aich captain.

Wolfgang Lankes is now playing in the FC Fürstenfeldbruck over-40s team

Wolfgang Lankes was also known in this way: In a friendly conversation with the referee.

© Dieter Metzler

As a captain, Lankes benefited from his ability as a loudspeaker, but sometimes his statements caught up with him again.

He once said that he would never play in an old men's team.

But his brother Martin now convinced him of the opposite.

Wolfgang Lankes will end his career in the Ü40 team at FC Fürstenfeldbruck.

The oldies from the old SC Fürstenfeldbruck league, which are well-known in the district, play in the eleven.