For his 70th birthday: Quiz Christoph Daum’s coaching career

Has cancer “been pushed back so far”?

Christoph Daum’s last coaching position ended in April 2017. In recent years, the former successful coach of Cologne, Stuttgart, Leverkusen and Co. has withdrawn from active business as a result of his cancer. Today, October 24th, Daum celebrates his 70th birthday – reason enough to look back on his long career.

You can test your knowledge in the Transfermarkt quiz! Do you know which state Daum was born in or which clubs he coached in Turkey? These and other questions await you in the TM quiz about Christoph Daum. As always, you have 20 seconds for each of the ten questions. The faster you give the correct answer, the higher the score.

Christoph Daum has a busy schedule – national coach or advisor again?

Daum describes his appointment calendar as “full to the ceiling”. He conducts at least two interviews almost every day to mark his anniversary; it was only on Sunday that he made a detour to the “Sport1 Doppelpass” and was celebrated there. The program for Tuesday doesn’t look any more relaxed, when the former master coach celebrates his birthday in Cologne. He invited around 200 friends, companions or very good acquaintances. First they meet in a cinema to see an excerpt from his film. Afterwards we go to a Brazilian restaurant next door. “But there will be no seating arrangements, everything will be very relaxed. Not that anyone is looking for a card with their name or tax number on it,” jokes Daum. The guest list includes Rudi Völler, Matthias Sammer and Reiner Calmund.

Daum can hardly rest, even after 22 rounds of chemotherapy. In the fall of 2022 he publicly announced his serious cancer. Daum lost several kilograms of body weight, but the dazzling coach fought against the illness. He knows that he cannot beat cancer. It’s more about controlling the disease. “We have pushed the cancer back so far, everything looks quite good. But I know that that can change again tomorrow. Now, in the next step, we want to maintain this situation or push it back even further,” he says.

On Friday, the TV channel “Sky” will release a documentary about his life. “Daum – Triumphs & Scandals” reports on his beginnings as a youth coach at 1. FC Köln, eleven titles in three different countries and the cocaine scandal that prevented his involvement as national coach in 2001. “Sure, there are some things I would have liked to have left out. But they are part of my vita, and that’s what you call life,” says Daum. The cameras also follow him during chemotherapy at the Cologne University Hospital. “This drip always illustrates to me a little bit our finitude,” he says, lying on the hospital bed.

While filming his film, he also met his long-time arch enemy Uli Hoeneß at Tegernsee, with whom he has long since made peace. “He told me: Only two great personalities can fight each other like that. This sentence touched me very much,” Daum told “Bild”. He gave a number of interviews during his illness and never complained. He even once told “Sport Bild” that the chemo was like doping for him. “It was nonsense, of course,” he admits today. What he wanted to say back then: That he didn’t want to let that get him down either. In the meantime, the treatment still took a toll on his body.

Daum could even imagine returning to football, perhaps as a consultant or national coach. “Sitting down somewhere every day and watching documentaries or reading books all the time is nice too, but no. I would rather work in football again,” says Daum. But first his big birthday is coming up.

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