“My life as a footballer helped me beat cancer”

His greatest victory, Sébastien Haller has just signed it away from the football fields. At 28, the Franco-Ivorian striker from Borussia Dortmund overcame testicular cancer, diagnosed in July 2022. After seven months of chemotherapy and two operations, the thirteenth of the last Ballon d’Or returned to competition in January, and even played in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

This fight against disease, Sébastien Haller has decided to make “something useful”. This is how the documentary “Le Combat d’Haller”* was born, available on Canal +, and which he came to present to his relatives on Sunday March 19, in Paris. In this one-hour film, we follow the athlete in his touching fight against cancer, in the intimacy of his family, and the efforts made to return to the highest level behind. Long months of combat on which Sébastien Haller returns for franceinfo: sport, before flying away to join the selection of Côte d’Ivoire.

France info: sports. We come out of the screening of the documentary on your fight against cancer, in front of your loved ones. Why did you organize all this, when you already had an illness to fight?
Sebastien Haller. It was very important to me. This event was also to bring together people I haven’t necessarily seen since the beginning of my illness, to discuss with them what I’ve been through. It’s good for my loved ones too to see what I had to, could do. They understand what I went through. Bringing everyone together is a great moment. More after a double [contre Cologne, deux jours avant l’interview réalisée dimanche 19 mars], before joining the selection, the timing is perfect (laughs). It gives a media echo to my fight, and that’s what I wanted.

Exactly, letting cameras into your privacy, when you are fighting cancer, is not easy. Is this your idea?
Yes. From the very beginning, I said to myself that I had to get something out of this event. It took a little time to set up, because there is a whole process to follow in relation to the disease. But I said to myself that if that happened to me, who am lucky enough to have notoriety, I had to do something about it. I didn’t want it to go unnoticed, for all this effort to be in vain. I received so much support from the world of football, from my relatives…

“I wanted to make my battle with cancer public to show that this support made me strong, and that we could get through it.”

Sebastien Haller

at franceinfo: sport

Showing my struggle, the days of hospital, it allows to talk about cancer and to prove that we can move forward, and how we do it. Overcoming the disease is a long-term job that is done day by day. I wanted to break the taboo around cancer. You don’t have to wait until you have cancer to talk about it. I wanted to use my image to turn this ordeal into something positive, especially in these complicated times. And it makes me happy to do it.

We see in the film that you keep your humor in this ordeal, which allows you to discuss subjects such as the supposed impact on masculinity, sex life…
Yes, because these are subjects on which we are not going to launch you. No one is going to ask you “So how does it feel to only have one?”. No one will dare. It’s up to you to go to people, to talk about it freely to explain that nothing changes. Anyway you’re not going to show them to everyone in the street, are you? So nothing changes, it stays private. It doesn’t take away the dreams you have, the things you’ve done, the person you are. It’s just a physical change, and a change that you can’t even see!

Before laughing about it, it must have taken you a while. To summarize the situation: you become the most expensive signing in Dortmund’s history in July, with the heavy task of succeeding Erling Haaland. And in the process, you are diagnosed with this testicular cancer…
Plus my wife wasn’t there, she was with the kids. It was harder for her, I think, who was alone with the three children, having to pretend for three days. Me, I was alone, I could manage. It was complicated, of course, but these are parameters that you don’t control. It falls on you, that’s how it is. You have to announce it to your family, to the whole world. Your daily life is turned upside down overnight. It sucks, you are leaving for efforts and hardships that you had not planned. But until then, I had a lucky life.

“Everyone has their share of hardships, I told myself that I had to go through that to be even happier and enjoy life, so let’s go: we’re going to beat this cancer.”

Sebastien Haller

at franceinfo: sport

You often talk about your children, but how do you announce such a thing? In their eyes, we go from the strong, athletic father to the sick father…
From the first operation, we discuss with Priscilla [son épouse] to know how it is announced. We can’t hide it from the children, they see me going to the hospital for five days, losing my hair. They see their mother sad. It’s impossible to hide from them. And in this generation of social networks, images could reach them very quickly. We talked, we got information on the internet. We found a youtube video explaining cancer to children. We tried to tell them everything. And afterwards, we show them that we are strong, that we are moving forward.

Has the disease changed your relationship with your body, which is also your work tool?
I have always been aware of the importance of my body, from a very young age. When you come from a Parisian suburb, with a modest life, and you are told that you can get by on your feet, and change the life of the whole family, you realize that your body is worth a lot. You pamper him. All the work I did upstream, my life as a footballer, helped me beat cancer. I continued to take care of my body during the treatment. The chemo, it hurt: we realize that with all these drugs, we kill you from the inside a little. But I continued to work, in particular mobility to reduce the tension at the level of the scars.

The gaze of others, even if you have been supported a lot, also weighs. And despite that, you went on stage during the Ballon d’Or in October. For what ?
Already, the presence of Didier Drogba, my idol, on stage, it weighed. And above all: there is no shame in being sick, in having cancer. It’s not our fault. And this fight against the disease, it’s a beautiful fight. If you don’t fight, you don’t win. Going to the Ballon d’Or was a way to say thank you for the support, to show that I was fighting, and that life went on. Whether you’re a footballer, worker or unemployed, you can’t afford not to move forward. You don’t have to survive, but live, go get things and not hide.

You returned to the field in January, scored, and even played in the knockout stages of the Champions League against Chelsea. When did you realize that this cancer was behind you?
When the doctor tells me it’s good, that there are no more restrictions. At the end of this ultrasound, at the end of December, I know it’s good: I came back, and here we go again. I’m back !

*Advertising revenue generated by the documentary will be donated to the League Against Cancer.