“That’s the devil challenging you. Stay on the ground. You’ll see. » We are playing the last quarter of an hour of the CAN 2024 final in Abidjan and Sébastien Haller, exhausted and injured in an ankle, wants to go out. The Ivorians managed to equalize (1-1), they push to now take the advantage before extra time. It’s time to give way to new blood, says the Borussia Dortmund striker. But a man will dissuade him. His teammate Ghislain Konan tells him to hang on and stay on the pitch.
Minutes later, Haller would become a national hero. Upon receiving an outstretched cross, he smashes the ball into the net with an acrobatic sole. An 81st minute of play which will remain for eternity and which he returned to this Sunday for Téléfoot. A small story that feeds into the big one, that of a man who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in the summer of 2022 and who, a year and a half later, at the age of 29, offered the African Cup from nations to an entire country.
Sébastien Haller, affected, asked to be changed a quarter of an hour before the end of the final against Nigeria.
His teammate Ghislain Konan dissuaded him from going out.
“That’s the devil challenging you! Stay on the ground!” @SaberDesfa pic.twitter.com/44V77aBwKu
— Téléfoot (@telefoot_TF1) February 18, 2024
“There is only one way, it is to move forward and we will see what happens next,” says the player, who was therefore away from the field throughout the fall of 2022 to carry out his chemotherapy sessions. A year later, the former French youth international was selected for his second CAN. Arriving injured in the same ankle, he gradually entered the rotation until becoming a starter from the quarter-finals onwards.
Back in the infirmary with Dortmund
Scorer in the semi-final, he did it again against Nigeria. “Oh yeah, I’m going to be decisive when everyone was expecting me. It feels good, it boosts,” says the man who will shed a few tears after the final whistle at Basile Boli’s microphone.
Celebrated by his teammates during his return to the Ruhr this week, he is today back in the infirmary. Still this same ankle which prevents him from playing to 100% of his abilities. His return date is not yet known. He should miss the double confrontation against PSV Eindhoven in the round of 16 of the Champions League.
