The French-Ivorian from Dortmund who shone in the Champions League with Ajax last season underwent two surgeries and multiple rounds of chemotherapy to overcome a tumor in his testicles
Just eleven months and testicular cancer after his last game in the Champions League, Sebastian Haller returned to her. And he did that as a starter against Chelsea, against whom he had a great chance to score what would become the first top-league goal of his new life. Days ago he had made it to Freiburg – precisely on World Cancer Day – on his official debut as a goalscorer for Dortmund in the Bundesliga, after a nearly eight-month ordeal that has kept him off the field. “Being able to score is an important message for everyone. For everyone who fights now or will fight later, the next day will always be better,” said the player after scoring his first goal in Germany.
“I mean, it can happen to anyone. It can happen quickly, so we have to check it. It can save lives,” warns the player, urging all men to get checked regularly.
The German team brought the 28-year-old French-Ivorian in July as a replacement for the Norwegian Erling Haaland for 35 million euros from Ajax, where he was surprised about his participation in the Dutch club. On his debut in Europe’s top club competition, the lanky striker had scored four goals against Sporting Lisbon and went on to score a further 10 goals in the group stage, making him the player who had taken the fewest games to reach that position. In addition, he is, together with Cristiano Ronaldo, the only player to score in all group stage matches in a single season.
His goal-scoring performance at Ajax, with whom he scored 34 goals in 42 matches (11 of which were in the Champions League), was enough references for the team now led by Edin Terzić to put him in their sights. In the same month of his signing, the bad news happened. “It was a big shock, but I had to stay mentally strong, be well surrounded and tell myself that with this attitude I would get through anything. Why be afraid? If something is going to happen, it will happen. If you have some control, you can be scared, but here I had no choice but to trust the doctors, who have been exceptional with me,” the player explained in an interview for L’Équipe.
The club packed him up and waited for him. In September, the French-Ivorian cheered on his teammates in the stands at Signal Iduna Park after undergoing two surgeries and several chemotherapy sessions. “The chemo destroyed my body from the inside, the surgery from the outside. So you start again little by little. And after the chemo, even though you feel pretty good, you look really sick, you have sunken eyes, no hair, black lips… And the first few days, because of the catheter in my throat, I had the voice of a man who had a cold. I had to recover to find my voice again because I spoke very softly, without strength. It was weird.” In November, he underwent the final procedure to completely remove the turmo. The last before returning in January, where he played a few minutes against Augsburg before celebrating being a footballer again.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
