Schalke 04 returns to the Bundesliga after three years. The club from Gelsenkirchen won 1-0 against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday evening through a goal by Kenan Karaman after fifteen minutes of play.
“This promotion is very special,” Youri Mulder, Schalke’s Dutch director of football affairs, said from his seat in the stadium to channel NITRO during the closing minutes. “You see it on people’s faces all day long. It’s not just that we got promoted, but also the way we did it. We had a fantastic season.”
Schalke 04 already became champions of the 2. Bundesliga in the 2021/2022 season, but was relegated back to the second level of Germany a year later. After finishing tenth and fourteenth at the second level in the past two seasons, Schalke was very strong again this season.
There are still two rounds to go in the 2. Bundesliga. Schalke is nine points above number two SC Paderborn, which still has three games to play. Schalke already did excellent business last week by winning 0-1 at Paderborn, after which it became a party evening on Saturday evening in the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen where all 63,000 places were occupied. Former striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and former trainer Huub Stevens were among the fans in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday evening.
Schalke 04 never became champions of the Bundesliga, the German league that has existed since 1963. The club from Gelsenkirchen finished second in the Bundesliga seven times: in 1972, 1977, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2018.
Schalke 04 did win prizes in the form of the DFB-Pokal (in 1937, 1972, 2001, 2002 and 2011). In 1997, Schalke won the UEFA Cup final against Inter, with Huub Stevens as coach.
Bundesliga schedule
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