Hässler has suffered from memory loss and tinnitus, among other things, but will start his coaching career again in the lower division team in Berlin.
Chilled on the edge of the midfield of the West German and German men’s national football teams Thomas Hässler has suffered from mysterious health problems for a long time, but now the 58-year-old German has recovered to coaching condition.
Hässler starts his coaching career again from the bottom end of the German football pyramid, the eighth league level, the Bezirksliga, from where he tries to lift the Berlin club FC Spandau 06 up.
– Yes, I’m back where I belong, i.e. on the football field. I have spent more than 55 years working with football, Hässler, who already took possession of the ball as a toddler, told the German newspaper Bild.
As a player, Hässler achieved, for example, the World Championship in 1990 and the European Championship in 1996. In 1992, he finished third when the International Football Association Fifa chose the best footballer of the year.
Hässler ended his playing career in 2004 and since then has worked, for example, in the coaching team of Cologne, which he is already very familiar with from his playing career, and as an assistant coach of the Nigerian national team. His previous coaching job in Berlin’s BFC Preussen ended two years ago due to health problems.
According to Bild and Der Spiegel, Hässler has suffered from amnesia, neck pain, dizziness and tinnitus, but Hässler assured Der Spiegel two years ago that he is not terminally ill. Now he returns to football overalls with enthusiasm.
– The health problems are now under control. Almost all symptoms are gone. Only tinnitus is sometimes annoying. But that’s not a problem, Hässler, who played a respectable 101 international matches, assured.
Preparation for the season starts on July 16.
– I am looking forward to a new task and a regular weekly rhythm on the football field. I already missed it. We want to rise to a higher league level.