It may be a bittersweet boast. A ground that has hosted a World Cup and European Championship final, along with an Olympic Games, is the venue for the meeting of the two clubs in global football with the highest average attendance; while not playing top-flight football, that is.
The 2. Bundesliga resumes after its Winterpause this weekend with the historic Olympiastadion staging Hertha Berlin against Schalke, but with the potential it will not be a second-tier fixture next season. And if the club from the German capital – whose gates average out at 48,451 – still see many an empty seat, that isn’t the case in Gelsenkirchen. Schalke’s mean crowd of 61,826 is exceeded only by 10 others in Europe: Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter, Marseille, Roma, West Ham and Atletico Madrid.
There is a temptation to attribute that to a rare sense of success for a fallen giant: Schalke, who played in the Champions League seven years ago, who reached the semi-finals in 2011, top the table. And yet, as one of Schalke’s favourite sons recalls, the loyalty to the club was apparent five months ago, when the campaign commenced against Saturday’s opponents.
“Imagine you have played the worst season ever in history in Gelsenkirchen and the first game was at home against Hertha BC,” said Benedikt Howedes. “The stadium was fully packed. The crowd was just incredible. That supporters and fans are coming back even after such a bad performance from the team and the team let them down and they are not staying away. They don’t want to stay at home. No, they want to support.”
Howedes was not exaggerating in his assessment of Schalke’s 2024-25. They finished 14th in the second tier. Since the inception of the Bundesliga, they have never been lower. Before the Bundesliga’s creation, they were champions of Germany six times. More recently, they have been Uefa Cup winners. There is an argument to call them the third biggest club in Germany. And yet Gelsenkirchen is, according to estimates, about its 26th biggest city.
But the identity of an unlovely post-industrial place can revolve around football. In the crowded Ruhr area, where towns and cities are jammed up against each other, Gelsenkirchen stands out for the size of the support at the Veltins Arena.
“Everyone in this Ruhr region hopes that they will return to the first Bundesliga,” said Howedes, the former Germany international, who grew up in nearby Haltern-am-See. “I would say even Borussia Dortmund is hoping it a lot because they miss the derby as much as Schalke do and the current situation in Schalke is great.”
Which owes much to the unlikely architect of a revival. Miron Muslic was lured from Plymouth, where he ejected Liverpool from the FA Cup and almost saved Argyle from a Wayne Rooney-induced relegation to League One. The Bosnian was an unexpected appointment as manager.
“Not many supporters know him before,” said Howedes. “That was quite a surprise that he came to this club. We got a new head coach and he totally changed the mentality of the team with the same players.
“Look at them now, almost the same team [but] how big is the effort they put in the game, how much they run, how much did they fight, how much intensity is in the game. Obviously he’s finding the right words in the locker room.”
There is another contributor with memories of Liverpool. The 2019 Champions League final may forever haunt Loris Karius but, belatedly, the goalkeeper’s career has been revived. Schalke top the table with a mere 22 league goals, but they have conceded just 10. They have the most clean sheets and the best defensive record while Karius possesses the third highest save percentage.
In one respect, it is not especially exciting. It is nevertheless stirring for Schalke. “You know that they maybe don’t play the most attractive football, but what you want is that the players are giving their best on the field,” said Howedes, who sits in Schalke’s all-time top 10 appearance makers.
The 2014 World Cup winner is a product of their youth system. So is many another luminary. Muslic is not the only manager who has excelled at the club. The under-19 coach, Norbert Elgert, has been in his post for almost three decades, bringing through Mesut Ozil, Manuel Neuer, Leroy Sane and Julian Draxler, among others. “He is creating those talents in a very specific way,” said Howedes.
It is a reason why he thinks local rivals do not deserve the foremost reputation for creating footballers in Germany’s industrial belt. “It’s not Borussia Dortmund because Borussia Dortmund buy [Jude and Jobe] Bellingham and [Erling] Haaland at a very young age, but they came from abroad,” he explained. “Schalke is creating young talents from the bottom and they bring them to the high level.”
He hopes that Dortmund rivalry can be renewed with the Revierderby back on the fixture list next season; that Schalke, relegated in 2023, won’t endure the indignity of a fourth successive season in the second division.
Howedes concludes: “I just hope that they could continue this road and finish it with a return to the Bundesliga.”
