After days of speculation, FC Schalke 04 created facts on Thursday: As expected, Thomas Reis will be the new head coach at the bottom of the Bundesliga table. Since he still had an ongoing contract with competitor VfL Bochum, the transfer terms between the district clubs had to be clarified first. Reis is said to have personally taken on a significant part of the costs due to Bochum.
When asked about this constellation, that Reis is said to have bought himself out of his contract with ex-club VfL Bochum, the 49-year-old was taciturn on Thursday.
“I don’t just want to talk about money now. I’ve spoken to the club and tried to support the process of being allowed to coach here. It’s easy to be made out to be greedy, I’m just greedy for success . That was worth a lot to me,” Reis at least admitted that he was directly and personally involved in the deal between VfL Bochum and FC Schalke.
As the “picturerevealed, it is said to be about a payment of 70,000 euros, which Reis is said to have paid directly to Bochum in order to buy himself out of his current working paper. Should FC Schalke 04 manage to stay up in the Bundesliga, according to the media report, another 30,000 would be paid euros due.
Knäbel confirms Reis’ “financial participation”.
In total, Reis should cost up to 300,000 euros. The remaining 200,000 euros would be borne by the Royal Blues.
Schalke sports director Peter Knäbel emphasized at the presentation press conference on Thursday about the direct involvement of the new head coach in the completed deal: “I would like to formally thank Thomas Reis for his commitment, including the financial participation in the termination agreement with the VfL Bochum is concerned”.
In the run-up to the announcement of the personnel, VfL Bochum and FC Schalke 04 had actually agreed not to disclose the transfer modalities.