Marc Wilmots is to be introduced as sports director at FC Schalke 04. The Belgian has a successful past as a player in Gelsenkirchen. But in his new task he would be a novice.
At least there will be a large piece of folklore if Marc Wilmots returns to FC Schalke 04 and is introduced in a managerial role on Thursday (January 4, 2024). After all, the many supporters of the Ruhr area club could use any encouragement in these bleak sporting times.
The Belgian’s name is, after all, directly linked to one of the greatest, and for many fans, the greatest success in the club’s history – the 1997 UEFA Cup victory, in which Wilmots scored the decisive goal in the penalty shootout against Inter Milan and sent the club into ecstasy offset. Even today, the memory of it spontaneously conjures up the happy faces of the supporters.
Sporting competence
It’s been a long time. Now, as sports director, Wilmots is supposed to ensure that the many bad personnel decisions of the past Schalke years, which have driven the club to the brink of sporting and financial ruin, are a thing of the past.
The 54-year-old Belgian is supposed to fill the club’s already large skills gap when it comes to professional sports, which arose not least due to the separation from sports director Peter Knäbel, whose contract was terminated on January 1st.
Wilmots is considered strong of opinion
Chairman of the board Matthias Tillmann, whose official working hours began on New Year’s Day, apparently wants to try to ensure that two people from the club stay as close as possible to the professional team every day, probably in order to identify possible undesirable developments as quickly as possible and then intervene can.
In addition to Wilmots, André Hechelmann, former sports director at Schalke 04, will continue to work as technical director with equal rights. “Both have to work closely together“says Tillmann.
Wilmots, who once won the honorable title in Gelsenkirchen at Schalke due to his fighting attitude as a professionalWilli, the fighting pig“, has always been considered to be extremely self-confident and strong of opinion. Hechelmann, who has previously appeared very pale in public, will probably have difficulty asserting his ideas against his new colleague.
Successful trainer in Belgium
The preparations for possible winter transfers that Hechelmann had already planned have been stopped so that Wilmots can get an idea on site at the training camp in Portugal, where he wants to travel with Tillmann.
As a coach, Wilmots has already shown that he can also have a positive influence on football teams from the outside. Above all, he successfully coached the Belgian national team (2012-2016), managed to take part in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and was named “Coach of the Year 2013” in the neighboring country.
Most recently, Wilmots, a politician, was in the Belgian Senate from 2003 to 2005 as a member of the Liberal Party Mouvement Reformateur worked as a trainer in Iran. However, Wilmots has not yet worked as a sports director, but he is likely to know the current player market well due to his activities – and can probably try to get the S04 back on track.