CChristopher Daum chose an extremely life-affirming motif for his terrible revelation. Tanned, Daum smiles at the camera. It’s a sunny day. The former Bundesliga champion coach and near-national coach has a doctor in his arms that he coached at “FC Diabetologie”. Their common mission: having fun with football – and educational work in the fight against diabetes. Now it is Daum who needs medical help: the 68-year-old is suffering from cancer.
“Unfortunately, I’ve had to withdraw from the public eye over the past few months because I was diagnosed with cancer as part of a routine checkup,” Daum wrote on Instagram on Friday. Daum did not give any details about his illness.
However, he is “in the best hands” at the Center for Integrated Oncology at the University Hospital in Cologne and was happy that “the treatment is working very well for me!” Daum, who asked for his privacy to be respected, went on to say: “Your knows me: I am a fighter and will face this challenge optimistically and with all my strength.
The 68-year-old received numerous encouraging comments. Among other things, from Thomas Häßler, whom he had made a national player at 1. FC Köln: “Get well soon, coach! You can do it.” Bayer Leverkusen wished his long-time coach, who narrowly missed out on the championship with the Werkself in 1997 and especially in 2000, “a lot of strength”.
Daum always brimmed with this. When he took the coaching chair in Cologne in 1986, he was a jack of all trades. No spell was too cheeky for him, no goal too high to say it out loud. In 1992 he led VfB Stuttgart to the German football championship. Most recently, he worked as the Romanian national coach until 2017.
Daum liked to rub himself against the industry giant Bayern Munich and its long-time manager Uli Hoeneß. It was also this that indirectly drove Daum’s case shortly before the career highlight: After the messed up European Championship 2000, the native of Zwickau was chosen to be the national coach. Planned assumption of office: summer 2001. In the fall of 2000, however, rumors about cocaine arose, which Hoeneß fueled. A hair test was finally positive – Daum’s career stopped abruptly.
“Go to cancer screening in time!”
The former “loudspeaker” needed years to rehabilitate himself in the German public. He only managed to win titles in his second sporting homeland, Turkey. In Germany, however, he had lost his magic, with Eintracht Frankfurt he was even relegated in 2011. After all: Christoph Daum reconciled with Hoeneß a few years ago.
And for his followers, Daum still had good advice after his recent stroke of fate: “Go to cancer screening in good time!”
