German soccer is mourning the death of Christoph Daum. The family of the former Bundesliga coach announced that he passed away on Saturday at the age of 70 as a result of his severe cancer
After a long battle against cancer, Christoph Daum has “passed away peacefully surrounded by his family”. His family told the German Press Agency (dpa) on Saturday evening. One of German soccer’s most enigmatic personalities had been battling lung cancer since the fall of 2022 – a battle that Daum has now lost. He was 70 years old.
After his illness became known, Daum initially withdrew from the public eye, but he returned and, as so often before, showed his fighting spirit. “Cancer has chosen the wrong body,” was his message, with which he also wanted to encourage other people. That was typical of Daum, who was known as a great motivator.
Legendary feud with Uli Hoeneß
His battle against cancer was characteristic of his life, as he was never afraid to take on supposedly overpowering opponents. His feud with Bayern Munich manager Uli Hoeneß went down in the history of the Bundesliga. Even as a young and still unknown coach of 1. FC Köln, he challenged Munich – in 1988/89 and 1989/90 he was runner-up with the “Effzeh”. His debate with Hoeneß and Jupp Heynckes on ZDF’s Aktuelles Sportstudio in May 1989 was legendary.
Daum never backed down from a challenge, but his life was also marked by many low blows. Shortly after his first (and only) German championship with VfB Stuttgart in 1992, he missed out on qualifying for the Champions League due to a substitution error. Between 1996 and 2000, he finished runner-up three times and third once with Bayer 04 Leverkusen – he therefore played a key role in Bayer 04 being nicknamed “Vizekusen”. The 1999/2000 season was particularly bitter, when he lost the title on the last matchday with a 2-0 defeat at promoted SpVgg Unterhaching.
Cocaine affair as a low point
In October of the same year, his cocaine affair also moved the entire country. It was a foregone conclusion that Daum would take over the national team. But this dream was never fulfilled. After Uli Hoeneß publicly hinted in an interview that Daum might have a drug problem, an avalanche began. Under great public pressure, Daum agreed to a forensic examination of his hair.
When the result was positive and his cocaine consumption was proven, he hit rock bottom. Daum was dismissed without notice as a club coach and his commitment to the DFB was also invalidated
“It was a big mistake that I admitted to and for which I apologized,” he said many years later – and stood by his mistakes. “Who can claim that their life has been completely flawless? I certainly can’t. Ultimately, it’s important to recognize mistakes, correct them and then do better. That’s what being human is all about.”
So he never became a national coach, but he celebrated success abroad. He won the double with Austria Vienna in 2003 and led Fenerbahce Istanbul to the Turkish championship in 2004 and 2005. Years earlier, he had won the cup with Besiktas (1994) and then the championship (1995), which was another reason why he was held in such high esteem on the Bosporus. He recently regained this respect in Germany, not only because he led 1. FC Köln back into the Bundesliga in 2007/08. But it was above all his handling of cancer that earned him a lot of sympathy, and he also publicly reconciled with his former arch-enemy Hoeneß.
During his eventful life, he said one sentence over and over again: “You can fall down. It doesn’t matter how often you fall down. You just have to keep getting up. “
