Joshua Kimmich woke up at Lobinger’s deathbed
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Former pole vaulter Tim Lobinger lost his battle with cancer last week. His ex-wife Alina reports on the last days of Lobinger’s life: “We were all with him when he took his last breath.”
DAccording to his former partner Alina Lobinger, former pole vaulter Tim Lobinger was only hospitalized shortly before his death. “Until the end he was in a good mood,” said the journalist, who has a son with the athlete, the magazine “Bunte:. “It was only when the pain became unbearable that he was taken to the hospital and put into an artificial coma.”
The former world-class athlete died last week after a long illness at the age of 50. Lobinger was diagnosed with blood cancer in March 2017. After chemotherapy, stem cell donations, intermittent relapses and a brief liver failure in the summer of 2018, the 2003 indoor world champion was considered healthy again. In 2020, however, he had to undergo therapy again and received additional radiation.
“There will be no more healing for me. My cancer is too aggressive,” Lobinger said to “Bild” in October last year. Last week, the family confirmed Lobinger’s death in a moving statement: “The former pole vault legend fell asleep peacefully in a small circle, he did not lose the fight, but won in his own way.”
The “Bunte” reports that eight close confidants in the hospital kept watch on the former athlete’s deathbed, including Joshua Kimmich, national player in the service of FC Bayern. “We were all with him when he took his last breath,” said Alina Lobinger. The journalist and the pole vaulter got married in 2011, but separated according to “Bunte” in 2016.
Kimmich and Lobinger met in 2013 when Lobinger worked as an athletic trainer at RB Leipzig and trained the young footballer there. When Kimmich moved to Bayern in 2015, the two continued working together. A close friendship developed.
“I am eternally grateful to you for everything”
Kimmich said goodbye to his friend on his Instagram account with emotional words: “It’s not easy to put into words what you were and will be for me. I admired you more than anyone. I have always looked up to you because you are an inspiration and role model to me in all walks of life. You were and will remain my drive, my engine and my motivation. Every single memory of our time together not only makes me smile, but makes me wholeheartedly happy. I am eternally grateful to you for everything. Your values will always shape and accompany me. You will always be there.”
After Lobinger’s death, Kimmich was released from Bayern’s training last Thursday, but on Saturday he played for Munich in a 2-3 (1-1) draw in Mönchengladbach.