Former German football goalkeeper Georg Koch, 54, who admitted in an interview in 2024 that he lives with the thought that he will die soon, has passed away after almost three years of fighting pancreatic cancer, Bild reports.
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Former German national team player Berti Vogts was given a terrible diagnosis in April 2023. At the time, doctors gave him only six months to live — as a result, Koch fought the disease for almost three years. In May 2024, he spoke publicly about his fate for the first time: “It's incurable, I'm going to die. But God hasn't decided when he's going to take me!”
Over the years of his career, Georg Koch defended the last line of Fortuna Düsseldorf, Arminia, Kaiserslautern, Energie, Duisburg, Dutch PSV Eindhoven, Croatian Dinamo (Zagreb) and Austrian Rapid. In total, he played 213 matches in the first German Bundesliga and 165 in the second, and as part of Dynamo he became the champion and the owner of the Croatian Cup.
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In 2008, a firecracker exploded near Koch during a Rapid Vienna match. He suffered acoustic trauma, circulatory problems, and damage to his inner ear. As a result, he had problems maintaining his balance, and in 2009, he ended his career.
Despite the fact that Georg Koch did not play for the European giants, during his career under the guidance of Otto Rehhagel and Andreas Brehme he managed to play side by side with such celebrities as Mario Basler, Luka Modric, Youri Djorkaeff, Miroslav Klose. He even lived in the same room with the European champion Basler for three years.
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Georg Koch and the legendary Mario Basler
In the game against Jurgen Klinsmann and Bayern
Previously, “FACTS” reported that the titled goalkeeper, who underwent a liver transplant and the death of his wife, had died.
Photos from social networks
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