Football has weaved endless narratives beyond some of our wildest expectations. The comebacks, the underdog stories, the dynasties. It can sometimes feel like we’ve seen everything the sport has to offer.

And yet there are very few stories as uniquely captivating as Sébastien Haller’s. 12 days after completing his £29 million move to Borussia Dortmund from Ajax in the summer of 2022, Haller was diagnosed with testicular cancer. At the time, he thought he would never play football at the top level again.

But that didn’t stop his relentless drive, to the point where he was lifting weights during his recovery. Two surgeries and four rounds of chemotherapy later, the 29-year-old completed his six-month battle with cancer by scoring against Freiburg on World Cancer Day 2023. Laced in PUMA boots bearing the message ‘F*ck cancer’ and in front of Dortmund’s famed Westfalenstadion’s ‘Yellow Wall’.

But his ascent didn’t stop there. The stage was set at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. With his native Ivory Coast as hosts, Haller was presented with another opportunity to show how far he’d come. Notching back-to-back winners in the semi-final against DR Congo and the final against Nigeria to secure his country’s third AFCON title on home soil.

In isolation, that would’ve been enough for Haller to be crowned a national hero. But with the backdrop of his gruelling recovery, this was enough to make him a living legend.

It’s the kind of journey you’d have expected him to visualise before going to bed throughout those six months on the sidelines. But during the early stages of his diagnosis, did Haller ever envision himself with an AFCON medal around his neck?

“Of course not! I thought I would just have a peaceful life and try to make my place in football. But to be here with you right now, and speaking about winning the Africa Cup of Nations was out of my mind during this time.”

But even in his darkest personal moments, Haller was not worried about his own condition. Instead, his concerns revolved around how he was viewed by those who loved him. Fans, friends and family. Something that was crystal clear even from meeting him for the first time on set of a PUMA shoot in Düsseldorf. Standing at 6’3” Haller’s presence is immediate, but it’s his warmth and desire to connect with people that’s even more striking. When asked about his selfless determination, the thing that underpinned his route back to the pinnacle of football, he takes a moment to gather his thoughts and sits up in his chair. 

“The truth is, okay, I go through those challenges, but I have an end goal. I need to show I’m an example because I'm a football player. I know there are people looking up to me and they want to do the same. Young kids look at us as role models. I have kids as well and I want to be a great example for them too. And the best thing I can show is, you fall but you stand up.

“My aunt died from cancer around two years before I was diagnosed with it. And I know it was a big, big challenge for my family - especially my mum. You become another person but you don’t realise you’ve changed.

“So when something like that happens to you, the only thing you can do is fight. It was a tough period but I couldn’t just stay at home with everything I have, with the place I’ve got and not fight it or be an example.”

If there’s one thing African football has taught us, it’s that its importance stretches far beyond the 90 minutes. From the way Didier Drogba helped to stop a civil war in Ivory Coast after qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, to the way the DR Congo team held a silent protest before their semi-final match at the most recent AFCON to raise awareness about the ongoing genocide in the country.

For the players, there is a level of altruism which people don’t often associate with footballers of today. A win is not just bragging rights or three points, it’s salvation. It’s validation. It’s redemption. It’s for the people. Football runs through Africa on a deeper level than most other places. The stakes are higher, the rewards are greater and the intensity is unmatched. That’s exactly the passion that drew Haller to commit.

“Here in Europe, people love it. We know what it is for us. But in Ivory Coast, you can change the whole country with football. It's bigger than you. There is something different in Africa and especially in Ivory Coast. You feel that football is not just a game. It's more than that. For people, it's about life or death. 

“And of course you feel even more of this power when you're there. When you win something for your country, you know it is not only the people who follow football who are proud of you. It's about everyone: all the mothers, everyone in the village is happy and proud to say that Ivory Coast is a champion of Africa.”

But Haller is a champion in his own right. Dealt setback after setback in his career, his only answer is to look forward. When his big money move to West Ham didn’t quite work out, he returned the next season by scoring 11 goals in eight Champions League games for Ajax. Amid the chaos of Ivory Coast’s AFCON journey, he was the one they could rely on to snatch victory.

But most importantly, when people are diagnosed with cancer, the main thing on their mind is survival. And yet Haller is thriving. It takes an immense amount of self-belief to clear these hurdles as gracefully as he has.

In some ways, it speaks to the mentality of an elite striker. The idea that you can’t dwell on the chances you’ve missed, you must instead focus on taking the ones you’ll get. To keep forging goal scoring opportunities from the most inconceivable situations. To have a level of optimism that some would call delusion.

Yet unlike your typical striker, Haller exhibits an unselfishness that Guti in his prime would have been proud of. Incredibly, his self-belief is not self-driven. It comes from his desire to return the love his family has shown him throughout his career.

“I don't want to have any regrets about anything I'm doing. I want to do things right. This is also pushed by my family and my surroundings. I don't want to disappoint all the people that loved me and give me confidence and everything else. 

“When you become a father and you create a family, you're incredibly proud of this. For me, it's an accomplishment to have a family that supports me every day and I'm grateful to them. For this, I need to show that I also deserve this love and the support. 

“I just want to give this back to them.”

That same ruthless perseverance was key to Ivory Coast’s AFCON victory. From finishing third in their group after a 4-0 drubbing by Equatorial Guinea and sacking their manager Jean-Louis Gasset mid-tournament. Coming from behind in three out of their four knockout games in Undertaker-style dramatic fashion.

While he insists there were no secrets to the Elephants’ never-say-die attitude, Haller believes the key to Ivory Coast’s success was the humility in going from favourites to being an inch away from an embarrassing exit. As far as he was concerned, the benefits of home advantage went hand-in-hand with the pressures of potential failure.

“Everyone in the dressing room tried to talk and give their message. But the truth is, no one was really listening to each other. So in the end, it is difficult to compete and succeed when not everyone is going in the same direction. 

“The fact that the coach had to leave meant we had a big part of the responsibility. Everyone realised that we were really close to being out of our own tournament and breaking our dreams. And just going back to our clubs and dealing with that frustration for the rest of our lives. 

“So [when we made it beyond the group stages], we knew we couldn’t waste two chances like that. It was impossible. Once we came together after that, it was difficult to stop us.”

Haller was nursing an ankle injury throughout AFCON and missed Ivory Coast’s first three games. But having watched his nation’s hopes hang by a thread following the group stages and after consulting the medical team, he decided to play through his injury in the knockout stages. A decision he didn’t take lightly, but one he felt compelled to make. With the support of his teammates, family and PUMA - a brand that’s supported Haller on his journey to the top of the game for both club and country, something he wholeheartedly recognises. “Growing up you dream of being sponsored by a brand like PUMA. It’s never something you really believe will happen to you but when it does, you take great pride in it. It’s an honour to have PUMA work with and represent me across both levels of the game.”

Haller’s relationship with Ivory Coast is one bound by duty. Born to an Ivorian mother who moved to France at the age of 17, the country’s culture has been a part of Haller’s life since he travelled to the country for the first time as an eight-year-old boy.

Despite representing France at every youth level, he never made a senior appearance for Les Bleus. All the while, the Ivorian FA were constantly reaching out to him in the background. But the timing wasn’t quite right. As a player, Haller had ambitions of establishing himself more before switching allegiances. And as a national side, he felt Ivory Coast was not as stable as he hoped.

But while at West Ham, Patrice Beaumelle - the Ivory Coast manager at the time - paid Haller a visit to his London home after a game to persuade him to join. Haller made his switch official soon after. While he sits with an AFCON winners’ medal draped around his neck, his decision to change national teams was not about personal glory. It was about giving back.

“I felt like things were changing. A footballer’s career is quite short. You need to take all the choices really carefully. And Ivory Coast is a part of me. It’s a part of my culture, of everything I've done in my life. At a certain point, I wanted to get closer to my origins. For my kids as well.

“I needed something else. I wanted to be more important for my country. And I felt that Ivory Coast needed me more than France. I wasn’t even in the national French senior national team. I really felt it was the right choice because I wanted to be useful. I wanted to have no regrets and do something really incredible. 

“And today, it’s difficult to say that I was wrong!”

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