FC Schalke 04 started the pre-season on Wednesday and trained for the first time under the direction of new coach Frank Kramer. The Gelsenkirchen squad is far from complete, however, more than ten licensed players were missing for the opening session in the venerable Parkstadion.
Among them are the prominent players on loan from Schalke, who should be back in team training by July 4 at the latest. Ozan Kabak (last loaned to Norwich City), Amine Harit (Olympique Marseille), Hamza Mendyl (Gaziantep FK) and Rabbi Matondo (Cercle Bruges) all return to the Ruhr area.
The club’s plan with the quartet is clear: all returnees can look for new clubs, FC Schalke would like to get them all off the payroll. Until then, Kabak, Harit and Co. should return to training with the Royal Blues.
FC Schalke still looking for defensive players
It is very unlikely that they could appear again in a competitive game for S04. Kabak and Harit in particular, who are among the top earners, no longer fit into the club’s salary structure at all.
In order to get rid of the expensive stars, Schalke should now even agree to a significantly lower transfer fee than a year ago. At that time, the miners had hoped for up to 20 million euros for central defender Ozan Kabak. This is now a completely utopian sum. Sports director Rouven Schröder still hopes to be able to score a double-digit million sum for the Turk.
In the search for further newcomers, the promoted team is currently focusing on the defensive area. In addition to another central defender, sports director Schröder should also have the transfer of a defensive midfielder on his to-do list, the “kicker” reported.