Sebastian Polter will strengthen FC Schalke 04 from the new season. The attacker has had an extraordinary career – and will try to bring his special skills to the Ruhr area club.
He is said to have already been seen in these weeks: in the Sparkasse, in the Buer district of Gelsenkirchen. Edinson Cavani is said to have already inquired about a property in the Ruhr area city. Just like the former Dutch top player Edgar Davids did in the early 2000s.
An international top star like the Uruguayan Cavani would give the newly promoted FC Schalke 04 to look good of course. Especially since the euphoria about the club is again and unsurprisingly particularly great. The S04 back in the Bundesliga. If that’s not a reason to lose sight of the sober reality and wallow in hope a little.
Like Davids, Cavani is just an illusion, an unrealistic rumour. Sports director Peter Knäbel and manager Rouven Schröder nip such dreams in the bud rather humorlessly. Schalke still get a new striker: Sebastian Polter. On Monday (06/20/2022) the club announced the commitment until 2025.
A lot of passion, rather no tricks
The 31-year-old is far from making the club’s supporters dream of big European games. But Polter brings something to the S04 that traditionally goes particularly well with the Gelsenkirchen club.
Polter “is a rustic player”, as his ex-coach told him VfL Bochum, Thomas Reis, described: full commitment, passion, strength in the air, willingness to run, fighting power, aggressiveness on the sports field. These are all the attributes that define Polter. A particularly careful handling of the ball, ingenious relay passes or even acrobatics with the ball at the foot are not to be expected from him.
Ten goals and two assists in 33 Bundesliga appearances in Bochum last season are also a decent record for the traditional centre-forward. Polter is likely to have been signed by Schröder as a supplement/replacement/competitor for Simon Terodde (30 goals in the 2nd division), who was outstanding in the past season. Both players are very similar in their style of play. At least one thing is certain: With Polter, a player comes to Schalke who knows what he wants.
From goalkeeper to striker
The attacker’s career is anything but usual in today’s professional soccer world. Polter was also once in a cadre factory: at the age of 13 he moved from Wilhelmshaven to Werder Bremen – as a goalkeeper. A year later, those responsible wanted to take him over from the Weser to the U15s. Polter also wanted to continue – but only as a striker.
“We discussed two or three times with him, then we went our separate ways. We had two strikers who were better than him at the time,” Werder coach Thorsten Bolder, who was responsible at the time, told the Weser Kurier in 2019 and emphasized: ” I take my hat off when a boy of that age has such clear ideas. He went back to Wilhelmshaven because he could play in the field there.” There, the striker Polter then worked successfully on his new career.
“Motorically not very fine”
During the summer break he went jogging a lot to catch up on his physical deficit. “Besides, I didn’t really understand the game and had deficits in the pace of the game. That was the most difficult change,” said Polter on the Bremen club’s website. Actually, he had already completed his dream of becoming a professional soccer player, preferring to “go play with friends”, as he also revealed.
But: In the end, it wasn’t that difficult for him to switch from the goal line to the opponent’s penalty area. On the contrary. In his first season as a striker, he scored 69 goals. After that, his career really took off.
Polter is now at S04 via Eintracht Braunschweig, VfL Wolfsburg, Queens Park Rangers, Union Berlin and VfL Bochum – to name just a few professional positions. landed. “With Sebastian, at the age of 14, it was definitely not foreseeable that he would one day become a Bundesliga striker. As a field player, he was rather limited. Motorically, it wasn’t very fine, but he had a killer hoof and the body to assert himself,” said Bolder still full of appreciation.
No more, but also no less, Sebastian Polter will try to get involved for Schalke from the new season – to prevent relegation.
