Club Career
Cha started his career in the Bundesliga at age 25. In December 1978, he was transferred to SV Darmstadt, where he spent less than a year before being snapped up by Eintracht Frankfurt. Cha made an immediate impact with his new club, scoring in three consecutive games. Frankfurt went on to win the UEFA Cup in the 1979–80 season. He was widely considered one of the best forwards in the Bundesliga throughout his career. He became the third-highest-paid soccer player in Germany. In the 1981 season, in a game against Leverkusen, he suffered a near career-ending knee injury.
In 1983 he was transferred to Bayer Leverkusen. He won a second UEFA Cup with them in 1988. Cha scored a dramatic equalizer against Espanyol to tie the game 3–3. Leverkusen eventually went on to win the game on penalties.
Cha retired in 1989 after a long Bundesliga career spanning 308 games in which he scored 98 goals (none from penalty kicks), then the highest for a foreign player in the league. Over his 10-year career, he received only one yellow card.
Read more about this topic: Cha Bum-Kun
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