“Treatment works well”
Coach icon Christoph Daum has cancer
10/21/2022, 12:25 p.m
Christoph Daum has withdrawn from the public in recent months. Now the 68-year-old explains the reasons. The former master coach is suffering from cancer. He also sends a combative message to Instagram.
Christoph 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 last few months because I received a cancer diagnosis as part of a routine check-up,” 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!” However, Daum did not make public what type of cancer was found.
Daum, who led VfB Stuttgart to the German soccer championship in 1992 and most recently worked as the Romanian national coach (until 2017), continued: “You know me: I’m a fighter and will also tackle this challenge optimistically and with all my strength. Great He has enjoyed success in Turkey, winning two championships with Fenerbahce and one with Besiktas, as well as winning the country’s cup and Supercup twice.
“Get well soon, Coach!”
Daum, who asked for his privacy to be respected, received numerous encouraging comments. Among other things, from 1990 world champion Thomas Häßler, whom he had made a national player at 1. FC Köln: “Get well soon, coach! You can do it.” Bayer Leverkusen wished its long-time coach, who narrowly missed out on the championship with the Werkself in 1997 and especially 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.
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.
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!”