In the 2nd division, the biggest crowd has been fasting for 66 years with a rival close to glory

This season, it was at risk of falling to the third division and even extinction, immersed in debts close to R$900 million and which in 2021 reached what today would be R$1.2 billion.

If Bayer Leverkusen won the 2023/2024 German title, Schalke hasn’t won the first division championship in 66 years! Not so long ago, in 2019, he reached the round of 16 of the Champions League, being eliminated by Manchester City.

With around 160,000 members, the club also suffered the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The conflict led to the end of the partnership with the main sponsor, Gazprom, an energy giant controlled mainly by the Russian State. Disastrous.

Belgian Karel Geraerts, hired in October, is Schalke’s 11th coach in a decade. In 12th place, five points above the relegation zone and three rounds from the end of the championship, Schalke 04 is mathematically still at risk of falling.

In the last ten games they won three, lost two, drew five, 14 points out of 30 played. Over the weekend they will observe their opponents and on Tuesday, while Dortmund will play in Paris against PSG, they will visit bottom and relegated Osnabrück.

The fans are behind the team and more than 40 thousand fans want to go to the game, as is the case in all Schalke matches outside the Veltins-Arena. But the Stadion an der Bremer Brücke only holds just over 16,000 people.