It was Rausch who warmly recommended young Abi to Schalke's manager Ivica Horvath, feeling the schoolboy international (23 caps) could already do a job on the highest level.

Schalke lost, with Stuttgart's Hermann Ohlicher's hat-trick the only goals in the game, but Abramczik's appearance on that 11 August made him the youngest ever player used on Bundesliga level at that time.

Making fourteen appearances in his Bundesliga debut season, he went on to become a key player for his club in less than three years, netting ten goals for Schalke in 1976–77, when they finished runner-up behind Borussia Mönchengladbach.

[3] Köln's Müngersdorfer Stadion witnessed Rüdiger Abramczik's Germany debut when the side of Helmut Schön beat Northern Ireland (5–0) on 27 April 1977.

Tipped to be a delight for Germany, failing to produce greater consistency in his game appeared to be the bar to his further proceedings in Die Nationalmannschaft.