There was no good offer
“That’s it”: Ex-Bundesliga keeper ends career
April 1, 2026 – 2:21 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Last summer he said goodbye to the club he loved. Now Ralf Fährmann is finally drawing a line under his career.
Long-time Bundesliga goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann has ended his career. “That’s it.” I will no longer wear my goalkeeper gloves in professional football,” said the 37-year-old in the Transfermarkt interview. After his departure from his heart club Schalke 04 in the summer of 2025, he “consciously took his time in case something interesting or exciting came along, but in the last few months no offers have come in that would make me say: ‘I’m passionate about that'”.
In 2003, Fährmann came to Gelsenkirchen at the age of 14 and played in the “Knappenschmiede” together with Manuel Neuer. He made his professional debut in September 2008 – in the derby at Borussia Dortmund, of all places. About his career, he said: “I was never the great goalkeeper talent, but rather the hard worker who worked his way to the top.”
In total, Fährmann played 289 competitive games for Schalke, was Bundesliga runner-up in 2018 and celebrated promotion to the Bundesliga as second division champion in 2022. In addition to Schalke, he played for Eintracht Frankfurt, Norwich City in England and Brann Bergen in Norway. However, he never really wanted to leave Schalke: “I would probably have given it up for clubs like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona or Liverpool FC, but the other clubs never came close to Schalke when I was playing.”
His CV at Schalke also included relegation in 2021, the “cake debate” and a rift with the sporting leadership. His connection to the club remains unaffected. Fährmann explained: “I love this club to death. That won’t change just because a few people in the club didn’t really behave fairly towards me. I always carry the Schalke myth in my heart.” He played his last game in January 2024 before his contract expired last summer.
