Emotional TV interview: Ex-professional football player Kay Voser fights back tears

When asked if he wanted to make his schizophrenia public, Kay Voser said on “TalkTäglich” that he was “emotionally torn.” The ‘outing’ provoked various reactions from the public. On the one hand, Voser was happy with the many positive news. He received numerous responses, including from those affected, who encouraged him and expressed their condolences. On the other hand, he also received a lot of hate messages, for example from people who did not believe him.

Ex-football player Kay Voser gave ‘Blick’ an extensive interview about his illness in early January. He talked about his difficult environment, even as a young professional footballer, with “an alcoholic father” and a “mother who was manic-depressive”. Voser had previously hinted at mental health issues via Instagram. Voser says he initially did this via social media, because he did not yet have the courage to speak about it publicly. A few days ago he answered questions about the SRF program “Gredig Direkt”, and on Tuesday he was a guest in the program “TalkTäglich”.

An incident three months ago made him “start fighting for my life,” says the 37-year-old, who continues to fight back tears as he speaks. His psychiatrist had previously diagnosed him as psychotic and ultimately called the police during this incident because he thought Voser “wanted to hurt himself.” Voser himself then consulted with the police for more than two hours and tried to explain that this was not the case.

Since then he has suffered from paranoia, which in turn causes insomnia and great stress. “Afterwards, no one believed me anymore,” said the ex-footballer, “everyone just believed my psychiatrist – that I was ‘sick’ and that this could only be treated with medication and a stay in hospital.”

The 37-year-old says it was clear to him that he had suffered from schizoaffective disorder all his life. But he kept this a secret. “I never felt sick,” says Voser, “but I always knew I was different.”

The reports about his schizophrenia appeared not only in Switzerland, but also in Germany, England and America, says moderator Hugo Bigi. He asks Voser what it’s like for him – as a fundamentally shy person. Here Voser bursts into tears: “It’s my nightmare,” he says. He never wanted that, he was actually taken out of the closet by his psychiatrist and now he can’t go back. “I’ve always wanted to live a completely normal life,” the 37-year-old said.

But it is his path, he continues, and he wants to face his greatest fear: becoming famous. Because: “The more famous I am, the more people know me, the stronger my paranoia becomes,” says the footballer, who already played in the Champions League with FC Basel.

Voser left his comfort zone at FC Basel. The ex-footballer went to England to play for the second division club FC Fulham. He also did this because he had a ‘family’ with the team in Basel, but the proximity had also increased his paranoia. “At Fulham I started to accept my psychosis – and realized that this state actually suits me more than when I was the shy Kai,” says Voser. He is now only happy ‘when he is psychotic’ – because he doesn’t have to pretend or feel ashamed. He asks everyone to understand “that it is me. It is my deepest self that I am schizoaffective.”

Voser, who worked as a pundit at SRF Sport until November 2023, also recently commented on the ‘medical professionals’, including his psychiatrist, whom he apparently deeply distrusts. “Every psychiatrist in the newspapers has spoken out against me so far,” says the Aargau resident, “which is slowly making me hateful.” Apparently the ex-footballer is also critical of medication: his sisters were also diagnosed and lived normally, even without medication. (lacquer)