Birthday Boy of the Month 2: Sascha Dum turns 40

from the Werkself to Alemannia and baCK AGAIN

Bayer 04 coach Klaus Augenthaler took Sascha along to the winter training camp and brought him on for the first time on 19 February 2005 in Nuremberg. Sascha made his starting line-up debut a month later, in the home match against Hertha Berlin, where he had the thankless task of playing at left-back against the Brazilian Marcelinho. Seeing himself more as an attacking player, he was outplayed by the Brazilian dribbling maestro and was substituted at half-time. From the summer of 2005, he was part of the Werkself squad, but only played for the reserve team.

In the second half of the 2005/06 season, Sascha was loaned out to Aachen, where he helped Alemannia gain promotion to the Bundesliga, only to be relegated again a year later. But he never quite managed to turn things around for himself. Back at the BayArena, he was unable to rise above the status of a squad player during the 2007/08 season. He switched between coming on as a substitute for the first team and gaining match practice with the reserves. The situation did not improve under Bayer 04 coach Bruno Labbadia either. Although he started twice, in his remaining 18 Bundesliga appearances he was once again limited to coming off the bench.

Lots of clubs in germany

In the summer of 2009, after 52 appearances for the Werkself, Sascha left Leverkusen for good and tried his luck at Cottbus in Bundesliga 2. After a year, however, he was drawn back west to Fortuna Düsseldorf. After two years at Fortuna, his contract was not renewed. He kept fit at MSV Duisburg, impressed during his time there and signed a contract with the Zebras in January 2013. On the pitch, MSV managed to avoid relegation, but the league licensing committee refused to grant Duisburg a licence for the 2013/14 Bundesliga 2 season. As a result, Sascha was relegated to the Third Division with the Zebras. He played there until the summer of 2015, was promoted back to Bundesliga 2 with the Zebras, but then moved to the Regionalliga West to join the Schalke 04 reserve team.

Over the next few years, the former youth and U21 international continued to play in the lower leagues in western Germany, also taking on the role of assistant or head coach at one or two of his clubs.

Nowadays, as the father of a daughter, he prefers to wear a traditional waistcoat and knee-length socks rather than football socks and a shirt. Sascha works as a waiter at the Hofbräuhaus in Essen, and if you fancy hearing a light-hearted quip or two whilst ordering, just ask for Sascha Dum – he won’t let you down.

Dear Sascha, I wish you all the best on your 40th birthday! Stay just as you are and, above all, stay healthy.