Reiner Calmund


Reiner "Calli" Calmund is a German football manager, presenter and author.

Life

Calmund completed the training to be a commercial clerk and studied business administration. In Rhine-Erft he was a football player and after a serious injury became a youth coach. From 1974 to 1976, he was assistant coach, under Fritz Pott, for SC Brühl. In 1975, the SC Brühl was able to participate in the final round of the German Amateur Championship.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Calmund started working at TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 1976, as a youth leader and announcer. Then, until 1988, he was a board member. Afterwards he was manager of the professional football department. Calmund became Managing Director of Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 1999.
Leverkusen's greatest success during Calmund's tenure was winning the UEFA Cup in 1988 and the German Cup in 1993. In addition, Leverkusen were runners-up four times for the Meisterschaft as well as for the Champions League final.
Calmund was responsible for the signings of Bernd Schuster, Ulf Kirsten, Michael Ballack and Rudi Völler. Additionally, he was able to win the Brazilians Paulo Sérgio, Jorginho, Emerson, Zé Roberto, Lúcio and Juan, as well as Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov for the club.
On 8 June 2004, he announced – for health reasons – his resignation as CEO of Bayer 04 Leverkusen for 30 June 2004. It became public in March 2006 that Calmund had been laid off by the club. The reason being an unexplained cash payment of €580,000 to the Bielefeld player's agent, Volker Graul, allegedly to purchase two Croatian players who never committed. In addition, Calmund claims to have paid Graul, at the request of Bayer Leverkusen, €350,000 from his private assets. The Cologne public prosecutor held proceedings against Calmund for a breach of trust, but the matter was settled with the payment of a €30,000 fine.

Activities

From 26 October 2004 to 4 January 2005, he hosted the show Big Boss at RTL- an adaptation of the US show The Apprentice with Donald Trump as a mentor.
On 25 April 2005 Calmund was elected to the Supervisory Board of Fortuna Düsseldorf.
He was involved as an ambassador for people with disabilities in Germany for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. On 4 August 2007, he received the "Golden Schlemmerente" in Wassenberg.
Calmund was an honorary ambassador for North Rhine-Westphalia for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and "International Championship Ambassador 2008 Klagenfurt".
On 15 June 2010, it was announced that Calmund would be a consultant for Dynamo Dresden. He stated that he wanted to "create clean, professional structures". This commitment was to be free for the city of Dresden, which has a say in the club, and the club itself.

Personal

September 2003, Calmund married for the third time. In 2013, Reiner and Sylvia Calmund adopted a two-year-old girl. He also has five children and three grandchildren from his first two marriages.
Calmund has lived in Saarlouis since 2012.

Trivia

In summer 2008, Star TV reported for one year rage Iron Calli Action. Where Calmund wanted to lose thirty kilograms of his 163 kilograms in one year. He was trained by Joey Kelly, also the German Sport University Cologne kept an eye on his health. With this action, Calmund completed on 17 May 2009 his first half marathon in 3:56:07 hours, and for which he had already lost nearly 30kg. For his perseverance and position as role model, Calmund along with the German Sport University Cologne and Joey Kelly, were awarded with the Health Media Award.

Publications