Former head coach of Spain's "Real Madrid" and the now-defunct Azerbaijani football club "Khazar Lankaran", John Toshack, has denied reports that he is suffering from dementia.
Idman.Biz reports that earlier, the specialist's son from his first marriage, Cameron Toshack, told the media that his father was allegedly "fighting dementia."
However, Toshack's wife, Mai Angulo, quickly denied these words. She emphasized that Cameron has not seen his father for two years and only communicates with him by telephone. According to her, the health problems are not related to dementia, but to the consequences of COVID-19.
John Toshack himself decided to clarify the issue. He invited a journalist from "El Mundo" to his home in Besalu, Catalonia, and commented on the situation with humor:
"Dementia? Not yet! I've forgotten all the goals I couldn't score, but I remember the ones I scored very well."
It should be noted that Toshack coached "Real Madrid" in 1999 and "Khazar-Lankaran" in 2013 during his coaching career. The Lankaran club is currently inactive and officially ceased operations in 2016.
In addition, John Toshack was the head coach of the Welsh national team from 2005–2010. During this time, his team faced the Azerbaijani national team three times – in the qualifying stage of the 2006 World Cup, the Welsh won 2:0, and in the qualifying matches of the 2010 World Cup, they were superior twice with a score of 1:0.