Daum in the Frame

It seems desperate times lead to desperate measures.

FC Cologne were touted as one of the favorites for promotion from the second division of the Bundesliga this season after being relegated at the end of the last campaign.

But with eleven games gone, Cologne are languishing in mid-table and a massive 12 points behind leaders Karlsruhe. The team's abject performance in the 1-0 home defeat to Aue on Wednesday was the last straw for sporting director Michael Meier who waited just 24 hours to terminate the contract of coach Hanspeter Latour.

The removal of Latour, in charge at the RheinEnergie Stadion for just over ten months, smacked of desperation and added to the feeling that events at Cologne were swiftly moving beyond everyone's control.

Cologne all at sea as promotion hopes fade

Cologne's dreams of a swift return to the top flight now seemingly lay in tatters and the rudderless club faces a potentially tricky encounter away at Freiburg on Sunday with goalkeeping coach Holger Gehrke in charge until a successor is named. And not just any old successor but a messiah, a superhero coach who can rescue one of the modern Bundesliga's proudest and oldest clubs.

This is where the story starts to get interesting. The name at the top of Cologne's wish-list for the new head coach is none other than Christoph Daum. While giving the job to Daum could not be considered a desperate measure given his success in the game, it would be a controversial appointment; Daum is hardly the wholesome Clark Kent/Superman type.

If Daum takes up the challenge it would herald the return to German soccer of a prodigal son once considered a candidate for national savior.

Daum is held in surprising reverence by the Cologne fans. After a unremarkable playing career with a number of amateur teams, Daum began his coaching career with Cologne's youth team in 1981 before moving up to co-trainer of the first team in 1985. He went one step further the following year and took full control of team affairs, culminating in two runners-up spots in 1989 and 1990.

Daum quits on brink of greatness

Just when it seemed that Daum was going to push Cologne to their first title since 1978, he was lured away by VfB Stuttgart leaving Cologne to begin a sorry descent down the league which lasted for most of the 1990's. No one would have blamed the fans for calling Daum a Judas at that point, especially when two years later he led Stuttgart to the Bundesliga title which Cologne had been so close to capturing under his reign.

But his long association with Cologne and his achievements at all levels with the club have kept him firmly held in many a heart. Daum's return to Cologne as a possible savior would give both club and coach a chance to renew their estranged love affair while the supporters would hope that Daum's magic touch in coaching would return Cologne to the top flight.

No one can doubt Daum's skill or ignore his record. Since leaving Cologne in 1990 and winning the title with Stuttgart in 1992, Daum has taken Bayer Leverkusen to three runners-up spots, won three Turkish league titles (one with Besiktas and two with Fenerbahce) and managed to find time in between to win the Austrian title with Vienna.

Impressive record leads to top job offer

In fact, his curriculum vitae was considered glittering enough for him to be touted as the successor to Erich Ribbeck as German national coach after Ribbeck resigned in the wake of Germany's dismal Euro 2000 performance. Daum was poised to take on his country's hopes of a revival and lead Germany to World Cup success in 2002.

This is where Daum's standing in most corners of German soccer, Cologne included to some degree, fell dramatically. Just as Daum was all set to take Germany on the road to World Cup qualification, he became embroiled in a very juicy and public drugs and sex scandal.

Accused of massive cocaine abuse and wild parties with prostitutes, Daum was dropped from the national team's plans like a hot potato. He was still coach at Leverkusen at the time but soon found himself out of work and out of the country as the club fired him and he fled to the United States while proclaiming his innocence.

Sex and drugs scandal tarnishes image

In what would become known as the famous Daum Hair Test, a renowned and internationally recognized laboratory at the University of Cologne carried out tests on a hair from the disgraced coach's head and found substantial traces of cocaine residue in the cells. Police then raided Daum's home and office at Leverkusen in an investigation into his alleged drug use.

Daum maintained that the test had been manipulated and that he had been a victim of a conspiracy. The outspoken coach had made many enemies in his time in the German game and had been involved in an ugly and very public feud with the hierarchy at rival club Bayern Munich. His critics described his assertion he'd been set-up as evidence of the paranoid effects of cocaine abuse.

The affair signaled the start of Daum's exile from Germany and his successful period of coaching success in Turkey. The scandal was felt so deeply in Germany that when Rudi Völler resigned in the wake of Germany's Euro 2004 failure, Daum wasn't even considered for the job that eventually went to Jürgen Klinsmann.

Now it appears, his old club Cologne are preparing to offer the prodigal son a reason to return to the Bundesliga and Daum is said to be considering the offer. If the controversial coach does decide to come home, it could make for a very colorful second half of the season.