Sébastien Haller, from cancer to the (almost) championship in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund – Corriere.it

Life knows how to be unpredictably wonderful, it can transform pain into joy and make us get up after a fall, even from the most disastrous one. The most beautiful example is that of Sbastien Haller. The Ivorian striker of Borussia Dortmund he put his signature on his rebirth with the brace against Augusta, in the away match that finished 3-0 on Sunday 21 May (the trio bears Brandt’s signature). Goals that could be worth the Bundesliga, after Bayern Munich’s home defeat against Leipzig and overtaking in the standings.

A title that has been missing on the Ruhr for 11 years and the protagonist of the story could only be someone who has already fought so much in life. From cancer to dreamthis has been the tortuous path of Haller, 28 years old, and now at Dortmund it will be enough to win at home against Mainz (Saturday 27 May, 3.30 pm), who come from four defeats in a row in which they conceded 13 goals.

Haller’s nightmare begins in July and his life is in danger of changing forever. After a terrific season in Holland, with the Ajax shirt, he was bought by Borussia Dortmund, but the tragic diagnosis: testicular cancer. And suddenly there is darkness. There are many, many messages of closeness to the player. Cancer – malignant – keeps him away from the field and misses the first part of the season. Six months during which Haller underwent two operations and four cycles of chemotherapy and finally in January he had the green light from the doctors to be able to return to training with the first team and play.

For the occasion, Puma, the player’s technical sponsor, celebrated the attacker’s return with a pair of personalized boots: on the outside of the boots, a message to the defeated disease: Fuck Cancer. I pushed away the fear – he said in the interview given to The team — that state of mind would have served neither to overcome it nor to live with it. And again: I thought: if something is going to happen, it will happen. If you have some control, you can have more apprehension, fear, but…I had no choice but to trust the doctors, who have been great to me. I had to continue to be mentally strong, tell myself that with this attitude I would overcome everything. As a professional player I felt that I had to have this responsibility.

A sudden problem: Then a kind of abdominal pressure started, I believed I had a hernia and consulted physiotherapists. I’ve tried everything, massage, acupuncture on the affected area, but no pass. They advised me to do an ultrasound to clarify the situation. Then they saw a mass. We had an MRI done the next morning to find out if the tumor was benign or malignant. However, I continued to train. And then, when the urologist arrived, he made me undress and in 10 seconds he told me: “a tumor”. That’s all, in that moment the world collapses on you. The worst part after chemo is actually. Chemo broke my body from the inside, surgery from the outside. So, I had to pick it up little by little.

Then there were the consequences of the treatments, which fortunately went well. After chemo, even if you feel quite well, you really look like a sick person, you have sunken eyes, less hair, black lips. The first few days, due to the catheter in my throat, I sounded like a boy who had caught a cold. It’s not often that a footballer gets cancer. Haller spent a lot of time with his family, he devoted himself to other things, such as cycling, arranging sport fishing, a field trip, paddle boarding, golf. He got his life back, who is now smiling at him. scored again in early February, Freiburg, 269 days after the last. it was his first in yellow and black, with the brace against Augusta reaching a total of 9. Now it’s almost time for the party: to celebrate there must be no missteps on Saturday 27 May at Signal Iduna Park.