The shock comes in the training camp: testicular cancer. Sébastien Haller is actually preparing to replace the miracle striker Erling Haaland at BVB. But then it’s about so much more. He has two surgeries and chemotherapy. Now he faces the next challenge.

It’s only dark stubble so far, but the hair is already growing back. Sébastien Haller is standing there in white linen trousers, he looks good in a blue shirt, he puts his left arm around Gianni Infantino and laughs heartily. The clock in the background is lit: 10:59 p.m., shortly after the second World Cup semi-final in Qatar. The Borussia Dortmund striker was visibly happy when he visited FIFA at the invitation of FIFA five months after his shock diagnosis of a testicular tumor.

It looks like he’s fighting his way into a second life. It was July 18, at the Dortmund Switzerland training camp in Bad Ragaz, the jagged peak of the Pizol crowns the Alpine panorama. BVB coach Edin Terzi? pushed around a bit after the friendly against FC Valencia, Haller was absent. But no one thinks big about it: It’ll just be a muscle thing.

But at 11 p.m. you can see journalists running from the restaurant through the small town to their hotels. “Sébastien Haller had to leave the BVB training camp in Bad Ragaz due to illness and has already traveled back to Dortmund,” the club tweeted late at night. “Examinations revealed a testicular tumor.” BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke told SID that night: “Of course we are all in shock.”

This applies in particular to Haller and his family. He came to Dortmund from Amsterdam as a star buyer, as the successor to the Norwegian goal eater Erling Haaland – but suddenly it’s about far, far more: for him, for his wife Priscilla, the children Chiara and Eden, who love to wear their dad’s jersey sitting at the breakfast table with the number nine.

Sebastien Haller fights. From the first minute. “I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the many warm messages I have received,” wrote the Ivory Coast international on Instagram the day after. “I was very moved to see these beautiful reactions and I even have the feeling that I didn’t deserve so much sympathy. We’ll see each other again very quickly on the pitch and celebrate our next victories.”

It’s not that far yet. In a first step, the affected testicle was removed, followed by a second operation at the end of November to completely remove the tumor – including a subsequent selfie with the surgical team. “The next stage is complete,” writes Haller and cheerfully puts a biceps emoji behind it, everything went well, “a big thank you to the medical staff”. Now he hopes to be able to continue preparing for his comeback.

As early as January, according to the WAZ, Haller could start training again. BVB is optimistic that the 28-year-old will still play this season. Haller should be carefully guided to his comeback. In the knowledge that the step back into a new life is not necessarily the step back to old strength. Sebastien Haller fights. For a second life. And for the second part of his career.

(This article was first published on Tuesday, December 27, 2022.)