Bodo Rudwaleit

Bodo Rudwaleit (born 3 August 1957) is a German former football goalkeeper who played as goalkeeper for the record champion BFC Dynamo from 1976 to 1989.

Rudwaleit began playing football for enterprise sports community BSG Einheit Woltersdorf.

He joined the youth academy of football club BFC Dynamo in 1969.

Rudwaleit made his first appearance with the first team of BFC Dynamo as a 19-year-old against FC Carl Zeiss Jena in the eighth matchday of the 1976-77 DDR-Oberliga on 22 October 1976.

He was known for being unusually tall for a football player at the time, with a height of 2.02 meters.

He then became the first-choice goalkeeper during the 1977–78 season.

Rudwaleit would play for BFC Dynamo during most of his playing career.

He became East German champion ten times in a row from 1979 to 1988 with BFC Dynamo.

He played in a total of 401 matchers for BFC Dynamo during his career, including 318 matches in the East German top-flight, and is one of the most capped players of BFC Dynamo.

Rudwaleit saved the last two penalty kicks for Aberdeen F.C. in front of 26,000 spectators at the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in the penalty shoot-out between BFC Dynamo and Aberdeen F.C. in the return leg of the first round of the 1984-85 European Cup.

BFC Dynamo then won the penalty shootout 5–4 after a decisive goal by Norbert Trieloff and advanced to the second round.

Rudwaleit was popular among the supporters of BFC Dynamo.

Supporters often chanted "Bodo, wink once!"

during matches.

However, he also often received provocations from supporters of opposing teams.

Rudwaleit was insulted as "Bodo Eierkopp" by supporters of opposing teams during the East German era.

BFC Dynamo was affiliated to SV Dynamo.

The players of BFC Dynamo were nominally employees of the Volkspolizei or the Stasi.

Rudwaleit held a rank in the Volkspolizei.

However, he has stated that he would rather have been hired by the Stasi, as that would have meant more money.

However, Rudwaleit had a grandmother in West Germany, which meant that path was blocked for him.

BSG Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt had qualified for the DDR-Oberliga in the 1988–89 season.

Rudwaleit played the first nine matchdays of the 1989-90 DDR-Oberliga season and all four matches in the 1989–90 European Cup Winners' Cup for BFC Dynamo.

Coach Helmut Jäschke then decided to give goalkeeper Oskar Kosche a chance in the next few matches.

Kosche made his debut in the cup match against HFC Chemie in the 1989–90 FDGB-Pokal on 11 November 1989.

Kosche was more than ten years younger than Rudwaleit.

Rudwaleit then announced his immediate retirement from football.

He did not want to stand in the way of Kosche and decided it was time to retire from playing.

A process of great sociopolitical change had begun in East Germany and parts of the Berlin wall were opened on 9 November 1989.

Rudwaleit served as reserve goalkeeper behind Andreas Hawa during the 1989–90 season.

Rudwaleit commuted between Berlin and Eisenhüttenstadt.

He had received a new Lada only a year before.

A prominent player in BFC Dynamo could order a new car every third year.

He traded in his Lada for a used Mercedes 280 after Die Wende.

There were also a few other Berliners in the team who commuted, but Rudwaleit held the speed record for the journey between Berlin and Eisenhüttenstadt by car.

He had managed to complete the journey in just 35 minutes with his Mercedes 280.

Rudwaleit eventually backed down from his decision to retire and instead joined BSG Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt on 1 January 1990.

He quit the Volkspolizei and returned his membership card of the Socialist Unity Party at the same time.

Rudwaleit became the first-choice goalkeeper of the successor club Eisenhüttenstädter FC Stahl in the 1990–91 NOFV-Oberliga.

Rudwaleit joined Tennis Borussia Berlin in the 1991–92 season.