David Degen shows his vulnerable side on the football talk show "Heimspiel" and talks about his "intense" bond with twin brother Philipp.
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- David Degen has been president of FC Basel since May 2021. During his first years as club boss, he came to the conclusion at some point for health reasons: "Now I have to take care."
- Degen spoke to few people about his concerns. He resolved it by being hard on himself.
- The FCB president also talks about twin brother Philipp and reveals: at FCB, he would like to have more players from a mix between him and his brother, as they once were as players.
David Degen shows his vulnerable side in the football talk show "Heimspiel". The strong man at the helm of FC Basel reveals that he went through difficult times as club president.
"I really struggled with myself - few people knew that," says Degen. The FCB president talks about a phase in which there were signs on a physical level that signaled to him: "Now I have to be careful."
Degen took over as president in May 2021 and became a target for mockery and ridicule. He hit rock bottom in the 23/24 season, when FCB was temporarily at the bottom of the Super League table. "I drew far too much attention to myself at the beginning," admits Degen. Now he is trying to work more in the background. "FC Basel lives from really good people and they belong in the foreground."
Degen looks back on his time as FCB president so far and says: "I wouldn't want to miss the experience of the first four years. But in view of what I've been through in terms of my health and personally, I wouldn't do it (the FCB presidency, editor's note) again. This has nothing to do with FCB, but with what I have experienced personally."
As president, Degen still bears the stamp of an ex-footballer. "I didn't come to FCB as president as a run-of-the-mill footballer. I knew what I was doing and I signed up."
In the meantime, Degen has overcome the phase in which he went through some health problems. He has only spoken to a few people about it and has dealt with most of it himself. He was able to resolve his issues by being "very, very hard" on himself.
"My brother was a soldier, I was a chief"
A lot of hard work is also behind Degen's career as a footballer. Looking back on his career, he says: "I had the problem that I thought I had to help the coach so that we could be successful." In this day and age, a player like him would probably be better for a team than in his time, when hierarchy was still more important.
Degen already said what was going on in his head as a player. His twin brother Philipp, who played for Liverpool and Dortmund among others, was different in this respect. "My brother was able to accept, he was much more of a soldier than I was. I was a chieftain."
"I'd like to have a mix of me and my brother at FCB"
If he could have one of the two Degens as a player at FCB, he would go for a mix. "Today, you long for certain characters in football. I'd like to have a mix of me and my brother in my team. We need that in football." FCB has one or two players with these qualities, but needs more of them.
Degen has a close relationship with his twin brother Philipp. He speaks of "such an intense bond" as identical twins, of a world that many cannot understand. The Degen brothers normally hear each other every day. However, the conversations are not always about football, but also about them as people - sometimes strong, sometimes fragile.
