By Andrew Lord

31 May 2022

In 1987, Cologne trainer Christoph Daum was enjoying a quiet Sunday evening at home when the phone rang, it was the normally unflappable club manager Michael Meier who told him: “Go to the train station immediately and buy a copy of Spiegel!” When Daum asked why he should buy the magazine, Meier replied: “Toni Schumacher has dropped a bomb!”

The German magazine had printed exclusive excerpts of Schumacher’s autobiography Anpfiff (Kick-off), which contained shocking allegation of doping in German football. Daum later wrote in his own autobiography that the revelations were not a big secret in the game, but it was the first time they had been revealed in public.

The backlash was swift as Schumacher was variously described as a traitor and a slanderer by figures in the game, but as the goalkeeper pointed out many years later, nobody called him a liar.

Teammates, functionaries and journalists contacted Schumacher in the days following publication and congratulated him on his courage. But before he could thank them for their support, his ‘friends’ asked to remain anonymous: “Of course, you are right, Toni, but I can’t say it publicly.” Schumacher soon realised the friends who had gathered round him over the past decade were nothing of the sort: “The first thing I lost with the publication of the book was the parasites.”

The Day After

Schumacher referenced a film from 1987 to explain the reaction to his book. ‘The Day After’ told the tale of a post-nuclear war world in which nothing was the same as before. Schumacher’s own personal day after was the 23 February 1987, the date the story exploded.

The first reaction by Cologne was to suspend him for the next match against Eintracht Frankfurt and shortly afterwards Franz Beckenbauer followed suit, dropping him from the West Germany squad and replacing him as captain.

Daum found himself in a difficult position as he was a young trainer, just 33 at the time, and was under pressure from the Cologne captain Klaus Allofs, who was particularly angry about the book, he viewed it as a betrayal of trust. The club was forced to take further action.

Schumacher was summoned to the office of the club president, Peter Weiand, who immediately shocked the keeper by telling him: “Toni, we aren’t going to be able to avoid punishing you. It’s probably going to result in us letting you go.” When Schumacher asked whether another option was available to him, Weiand said: “Yes Toni, there is an option. I could resign, then I wouldn’t have to sack you.” Schumacher was honoured by the gesture, but he refused to let the club president resign as a consequence of his actions.

The club received over 3,000 letters demanding that Schumacher be allowed to remain. But it had no effect. Schumacher, who made his debut for the club in 1973, was sacked after 544 appearances and 15 years at the club. Manager of Cologne, Michael Meier later admitted that by sacking Schumacher, the club had torn out a piece of his heart.

He was sacked by the club on 4 March, 1987. Then two days later, on his 33rd birthday, he was given the same treatment by the German Football Association.

Indeed, some at the DFB wanted to prevent Schumacher from ever playing professional football in Germany again. Hans Kindermann was a particular proponent of this idea. Schumacher took the wind out of his sails by commenting that if he were to be banned he would use the time to write another book which would make his autobiography seem like Hansel and Gretel in comparison. This swiftly ended any talk of a lifetime ban.

The situation at FC Cologne became even more bizarre for Schumacher. He had a contract with the club until 1989 and, while his agreement with the club was terminated effective 30 June 1987, Cologne wanted to receive a six-figure fee for their former captain. Until the end of the season, Schumacher continued to train with the first team, but when the players met to discuss the next match, he went home. A particularly cruel fate for one of the most committed players in the game.

However, Schumacher did have some support in the game. While he had criticised Paul Breitner in his book, the Bayern Munich star defended him. He later told Spiegel: “It is hypocritical to deny that doping exists. There is no solidarity amongst footballers. That is why players like me and Toni, who raise uncomfortable topics, always fall flat on our faces.”

He also found support from his Cologne teammate Hans-Peter Lehnhoff, who said: “You can’t simply throw away twelve years. I’ve cried over this, it simply can’t happen. Playing for Cologne meant everything to him. It was his club, his city.”

Schumacher stated that he had spoken about the issues raised in his book internally on numerous occasions. He had spoken to his trainer, manager, the boss of the German FA, fellow players and journalists, but no action was ever taken. He viewed his book as a way of exerting public pressure.

Allegations of doping in the Bundesliga

The most explosive allegations in the book concerned the amphetamine Captagon, which he claimed was widely taken in the Bundesliga and popularly referred to as ‘Cappi’ by players. He described the effects of Captagon as making players aggressive, suppressing tiredness and pain, and increasing concentration and confidence. Schumacher also revealed in his exposé that a Bayern Munich player was widely known in the football community as the ‘Walking Chemist’ and claimed that German players had become world champions thanks to doping.

Schumacher also freely admitted experimenting with a stimulant on one occasion. Following the European Championships in 1984, he took the drug, which he described as an act of stupidity, out of curiosity and in order to test the limits of his body. He wanted to force his body to exceed the point of maximum performance. He was also injured at the time and was worried about the effect on his muscles, tendons and bones. He was suffering under the pressure of performance, but he described the risk he took as insane, irresponsible and madness.

Doctors had warned him of the side effects of the stimulant, but he wanted to experience the drug for himself. He no longer wanted to be satisfied with glucose as a source of additional energy. He did not have feelings of guilt, as he was acting as his own guinea pig and he described the effect as being that of a locomotive. He was able to perform flat out in training and during games. The comedown involved lying wide awake at night, staring at the ceiling, feeling alternately hot and cold with every muscle in his body aching.

He also detailed his experience of taking cough medicine containing the substance ephedrine. The board of directors had spoken of a vital game which they said could decide the survival of the club. The Cologne players drank large amounts of cough mixture and won the game at a canter. Afterwards, Schumacher and his teammates suffered debilitating fatigue and vowed never to repeat the experiment.

He also revealed that after the match following publication of his book, three Cologne players were randomly selected for a drug test, the first time this had ever happened in German football. The results of the three tests were negative. The following season, the German Football Association introduced regular post-match drug tests.

The history of doping in German football

The extent of doping in German football has been revealed in recent years. Schumacher documented his experience of doping when he was a young player at FC Cologne. One of his tasks was to chauffeur half a dozen senior players to a doctor in Cologne, who treated the players with pills and injections before important matches. He found it unusual that fit and healthy players would need to take this medication. He stated that some of the players could no longer imagine their career without these drugs as they associated performance with pills. Schumacher assumed that the players were being supplied with anabolic steroids, amphetamines and other stimulants.

In 2011, Spiegel reported that three West German players may have broken the rules after taking a cold medicine containing ephedrine during the 1966 World Cup finals. The story came to light after scholars at the Humboldt University in Berlin found a letter from 29 November 1966, written by Mihailo Andrejevic, the chairman of the medical committee of FIFA, and sent to Max Danz, who was president of the West German Athletics Federation. Andrejevic wrote that the tests carried out on the three players revealed very slight traces of cold medication containing ephedrine. The stimulant had been on a list of banned medicines circulated to the participating nations before the World Cup finals, consequently, by the letter of the law, the players were technically doped.

Injury trauma

Schumacher also included a chapter entitled injury trauma, which detailed some of the injuries he sustained up to the date of publication. This includes the injury in the run up to the final of the 1980 European Championships. He landed awkwardly on his hand during a training session and broke his left ring finger. His first reaction was to conceal the injury from West Germany trainer Jupp Derwall and the team doctor as it would have resulted in him being sent home immediately. Instead he informed his manager Rüdiger Schmitz, who helped Schumacher devise a special goalkeeper’s glove. Schmitz then rushed to Metzingen to meet the glove manufacturer Gebhard Reusch. Two specially modified gloves were quickly produced, one for dry weather and the other for wet conditions. Schmitz brought the gloves to Rome and Schumacher played the final without any issues as West Germany beat Belgium 2-1 thanks to a brace of goals by Horst Hrubesch.

But Schumacher also revealed that the mental anguish he suffered was far worse than any of his physical injuries. While it was possible to see flesh wounds and broken bones, he wrote, it was not possible to view psychological scars. Schumacher suffered in particular following the 1986 World Cup final loss against Argentina. He describes the devastation he felt in August and September of that year which resulted in depression.

It is a powerful chapter in which Schumacher states: “Only death seems to dispel depression and fulfil a yearning for peace. Never again to be overburdened, never again to be spurred on by your own ambition. Life can be hell. Does death mean peace and security?” In his 2017 autobiography he described the chapter as a cry for help, which went ignored in the aftermath of the sensation caused by the doping allegations. Nobody took the time to ask him about the issues raised or how he was coping.

Life after Cologne

After leaving FC Cologne in 1988, Schumacher signed for Schalke 04, but the club had a disastrous season and were relegated after finishing bottom of the Bundesliga. He then decided it was time to take on a new challenge abroad, signing for Fenerbahçe and winning the Turkish league and cup double as club captain. In 1991, signed for Bayern Munich in 1991 as cover for Raimond Aumann, making eight appearances for the Bavarians.

When Schumacher retired as a player in 1992, he became a much sought-after goalkeeping trainer with Schalke 04, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. In 1996, he became the oldest player to win the Bundesliga at the age of 41 after being brought on by Ottmar Hitzfeld in the final game of the season.

In 1998, he became the trainer of Fortuna Cologne, but was sacked in the dressing room at half time. In 2012, Schumacher came full circle when he made an emotional return to FC Cologne as vice president of the club.

In his second autobiography, Schumacher questioned whether he had overestimated himself and if he thought he was going to change the football world. Or had he just wanted to tell the truth?

Schumacher later pointed out that he did not receive a single injunction or libel action because everything he wrote in the book was true, but he concluded: “People love treason, but hate the traitor.”

© Andrew Lord 2022