The start of the Ice Hockey World Championship is the biggest topic of the day from a sporting point of view – but on this Friday morning it was also important for the Kölner Haien to draw attention to a sad moment that is also associated with this day.
“Today 12 years ago our goalkeeper, teammate and friend Robert Müller succumbed to cancer,” recalled the DEL club on its social media accounts.
The former national goalkeeper and young family man died on May 21, 2009, at just 28 years old, much too young.
Müller was born on June 25, 1980 in Rosenheim, he played 127 international games as a goalkeeper, took part in two Olympic Games and eight World Cup tournaments. In the DEL he played for Rosenheim, Mannheim, Krefeld, Duisburg and Cologne.
He won the German championship three times, and in March 2009 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of ice hockey – when it was already clear that his story would be remembered as tragic.
Brain tumor in its most malicious form
In November 2006, Müller was found to have a malignant brain tumor after a dizzy spell. Several operations and comebacks followed, with which Müller aroused much admiration for his will to fight.
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As it eventually became known, however, Müller fought against an opponent he could not defeat: He had a glioblastoma, a fourth and highest degree tumor (the same one that also killed the writer Wolfgang Herrndorf) – average life expectancy: only slightly more than a year.
However, Müller did not want to do without ice hockey as long as it was still possible. “Next to my family, ice hockey is the most important thing in my life,” he said at the time.
On November 16, 2008, Müller was on the ice for the last time, coming on eight minutes before the end in a 5-1 win against the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, one of the most touching moments in German ice hockey history.