Schalke have endured 50 years of underachievement since a 3-0 victory over Hamburg earned them their last German championship. They have finished third, second, fourth and second over the past four seasons as the Salad Bowl has continued to slip through their fingers. But with a new coach at the helm this season – well as some high-profile new faces on the pitch – The Royal Blues could be in a position to end their long wait for the league title. They invested heavily over summer, raiding the Dutch Eredivise for Peru striker Jefferson Farfan, Holland midfielder Orlando Engelaar as well as coach Fred Rutten.
The trio look to have brought a fresh impetus to the club and all three have their sights firmly set on delivering the Bundesliga title. Farfan, who arrived from PSV Eindhoven, said: “Schalke belongs to the best clubs in German football. At a club like that with these surroundings, you have to automatically think about the title fight for that.”
Engelaar added: “The first aim is that we play for the title in the Bundesliga for as long as possible.” Rutten opined: “Bayern Munich are always favourites for the title. Behind them are several teams who will be in the mix near the top – Bremen, Schalke, but I also reckon Wolfsburg will be there.
“In order to be champions, you have to have an optimum season. Schalke have in the last year always played near the top. We, of course, also want to do that this year. But I will not name a place (we are aiming to finish). I want the team to develop further. The performance, the results & the football should come together.” It has been half a century since Schalke claimed the last of their seven German titles. While Bayern Munich have been racking up championship crowns as if they were going out of fashion – they have 21 in all – the Royal Blues have had to watch with growing envy at the increasing disparity in the size of their respective trophy cabinets.
The Bavarian giants have also enjoyed four UEFA Champions League successes, a vast improvement on the solitary UEFA Cup win Schalke have managed on the European stage. It was though, all so different half a century ago. Bayern had just one title to their name when Schalke won their last in 1958, the first six coming in a glorious inter-war period between 1934 and 1942. But major honours since then have been in desperately short supply – a UEFA Cup victory, on penalties over Inter Milan, in 1997, three DFB Pokals in 1972, 2001, 2002 and a League Cup in 2005 hardly enough to fulfil the expectations of the second biggest club in Germany.
Schalke supporters have also been forced to stomach fierce local rivals Borussia Dortmund winning the Bundesliga title in 1995, 1996 and 2002, and even scooping the ChampionsLeague crown in 1997. Most of the 60,000 fans who pile in to the state of the art Arena AufSchalke every fortnight have never seen their team lift the title. The last time that happened, Pele was no more than a precocious teenager yet to inspire Brazil to their first World Cup win, Alex Ferguson was just starting to make his name as a bustling striker with Queens Park Rangers, and Rutten and general manager Andreas Muller had yet to be born. Schalke, who are based in Gelsenkichen in the Ruhr area of Germany, have been an ever present in the Bundesliga since 1991 whenthey won promotion back to the top flight after athree-year absence.
They did not enjoy the most auspicious of starts dumped out of the Champions League in the qualifying rounds by Atletico Madrid – but they have recovered to head the Bundesliga table. And they will take encouragement from champions Bayern’s stuttering start to the campaign. The Bavarians took a gamble when appointing Jurgen Kilnsmann as coach and so far, it has looked more like backfiring than paying off.
Experienced boss Ottmar Hitzfeld stepped down at the end of last season to become coach of Switzerland and as replaced by Kilnsmann – a success as Germany coach at the 2006 World Cup bu unproven at club level. Bayern’s recent 5-2 mauling at home by another title contender, Werder Bremen, suggests that the championship might be there for the taking this season. Now it is up to Schalke to take advantage.