Double comeback at Eintracht. Not only captain Sebastian Rode has reported back on Wednesday after his knee surgery and trained for the first time again in the circle of the team. Marco Russ, Rode’s former teammate of past days, has also come into focus in the middle of the week. The now 36-year-old retired professional has succeeded with a depiction of his eventful life. Russ went among the scribes. Whereby: His debut work is the fruit of a collaboration “with my ghostwriter”, as Russ specified.
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His name is Alex Raack and he listened over a period of three quarters of a year, which Russ had to tell him in many conversations on the phone. Quite a lot, because the Eintracht veteran did not just want to present a biography. “At 36, I am still far too young for that and have experienced too little. I thought it was over after 25 pages.“ fallacy. In the end, it turned out to be 238 pages, and the title says what Russ was especially about: “FIGHTING. Victory. Life. A life for football and against cancer.”
Marco Russ, once suffering from testicular cancer, but now long since cured, has never made a secret of his illness. The former defender had previously spoken about it with an open visor – now his thoughts, which should also and above all serve as encouragement, are available in book form. “I very much hope that the readers can take some things with them,” said Russ on Wednesday, as he sat in an unusual role on the podium in the press conference room of Eintracht in the Frankfurt Arena and spoke as you know him: fresh, free, brisk. “I started a journey with this book.” A journey with your own self.
“Because we were a super bunch”
Not only the disease has shaped his life. The most emotional moment of his career, in which coach Friedhelm Funkel made him a professional: the cup victory of Eintracht against the seemingly overpowering Bayern. “That was the highlight”, said Russ, “because the Bavarians were the ultimate in the world”. The 3-1 victory on 19 May 2018 was only possible “because we were a great bunch. This success has welded us together forever.” Even today, goalkeeper Kevin Trapp and defender Timothy Chandler belong to the circle of players to whom Russ continues to feel friendly. “It was an intense, emotional time.“
