Schalke: Soppy isn’t immediate help – “Don’t break him”

Loan player not ready yet

With Brandon Soppy, FC Schalke 04 strengthened themselves on loan at the right-back position on Deadline Day. After the 21-year-old Frenchman was touted as immediate support by new sports director Marc Wilmots, the 54-year-old has now rowed back. The short-term plan with Soppy, who played for CFF Paris and Stade Rennes in his youth and was recently loaned out to FC Turin by Atalanta Bergamo, apparently did not work.

At the request of the “WAZWilmots resumed his words as part of the commitment. “Point one: If we bring in a player in the winter, it is impossible for him to be in top shape. Point two: Soppy is not injured, the magnetic resonance imaging during the medical check revealed nothing. He’s just behind. I alone made the decision to take him out. I want him to improve until he’s really fit. Then he brings something for the team. He’s a young player, I don’t want to destroy him,” explained the manager.

The task is to get Soppy fit to play until the home game against the current leaders on March 1st. “I want him fit for St. Pauli. That’s my goal,” Wilmots said. On February 1st, he said about the winter addition: “With Brandon we were able to sign a very dynamic player who should help us immediately with his energy and footballing qualities. In the current situation, short-term stabilization is of great importance, Brandon should do his part.” There is no longer any talk of that.

Schalke coach Geraerts “cannot give Soppy stronger legs”

The fact that Soppy would not provide immediate help became clear in Schalke’s friendly against SC Verl shortly before the defeat at Holstein Kiel. “You could already see that he wasn’t ready yet. We want to get him fit to play first. Of course I would like to have a player who is an immediate reinforcement. But if he’s not ready, he’s not ready. It is like it is. “I can’t give him stronger legs,” said S04 coach Karel Geraerts, commenting on Soppy’s need to catch up. The Royal Blues, relegated from the Bundesliga, are fighting to stay in the second division. With a market value of 6 million euros, Soppy immediately jumped into the top 5 of the most valuable second division professionals and was also by far the most valuable entry in the lower house in this winter transfer window. So far it hasn’t been enough for a minute of action against Schalke, and he was even missing from the squad in Kiel.

The strong offensive Frenchman is under contract in Bergamo until 2026. Atalanta signed Soppy in 2022 for 9.1 million euros from Udinese Calcio, which in turn had brought him from Rennes a year earlier. After a strong first half of the year at Atalanta, where he was used as a left and right wing player in the 3-4-2-1 system, Soppy increased his market value to up to 10 million euros. However, he was unable to confirm the good first few weeks and sat primarily on the bench from mid-November due to the return of the previously injured Davide Zappacosta (31). Towards the end of the season he also missed several weeks due to illness and injury.

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