The Belgian Karel Geraerts traveled to Gelsenkirchen with his wife and children on Saturday. The 41-year-old reverently toured the club grounds and stadium at FC Schalke 04 – and on Sunday, perhaps a little less pleased, he saw the 2-1 defeat against Hertha BSC. It was the sixth defeat in the ninth second division game for a struggling club whose new coach Geraerts was officially introduced on Monday, with a contract until 2025.
“Schalke is a massive, big club in Belgium,” emphasized the newcomer in English and despite a historically difficult situation. Schalke are third from last in the second Bundesliga and are in their worst position in 34 years, when in April 1989 they were penultimate in the lower house with ten games to go before the end of the season under coach Peter Neururer and then narrowly avoided relegation.
“Physical giant” is what Jim Knopf fans call a distant giant that gets smaller and smaller the closer you get to it. This is probably how Schalke currently appears to those traveling from Belgium to be in awe. But Geraerts didn’t want to talk about a meager seven points from nine games, about three defeats in a row, 16th place, an insecure team, about relegation battles and existential fears on Monday in the basement of the arena. “As a boy, I looked up to Schalke,” he said rather, “Marc Wilmots played here, and when I visited everything, the feeling was right straight away – it’s important that you feel something.”
Geraerts also felt something during the game against Hertha, because firstly, the sold-out stadium was once again extremely energetic, and secondly, after a quarter of an hour in the stands, he said to his wife about the team: “Okay, I see potential!” That may have sounded like a relief, and although he had to see two goals conceded in the 41st and 51st minutes, he liked how the Schalke team fought back from defeat. “I want to implement a winning mentality here,” said Geraerts the next day.
Geraerts did not want to reveal why his contract with the Belgian club was not extended after a strong season
Last season he made a name for himself when, after three years as an assistant coach, he led Royale Union Saint-Gilloise to the Belgian championship round, the semi-finals of the cup and the quarter-finals of the Europa League in his first year as head coach. In Belgium, Geraerts was named coach of the season. In the league, his team ended up third, one point behind the champions. In the Europa League, after a round of 16 win against Union Berlin, Saint-Gilloise failed in the quarter-finals against a club called Bayer Leverkusen, who were teaming up with Geraert’s former team for the new season Center forward Victor Boniface caught a big fish.
Geraerts did not want to reveal on Monday why his contract with the Belgian club had not been extended after such a strong season. “It’s hard to understand, even for me,” he said. He has been without a club since July. His successor at Saint-Gilloise is the German Alexander Blessin.
Open detailed view
Isn’t the decision for Geraerts quite risky in such a complex situation? “Above all, I see this as a courageous decision!” says sports director Peter Knäbel.
(Photo: RHR-Foto/Imago)
Geraerts, Schalke sports director Peter Knäbel and sports director André Hechelmann raved in unison on Monday about how, in their very first conversation with each other, they were immersed in the topic of football for hours and how much they agreed on a lot of things. But when Knäbel was then asked whether it wasn’t a pretty risky decision to hire a coach in such a complex situation who doesn’t speak German and has no experience in German football and the second division and certainly not in the relegation battle there, Then he replied: “I see this above all as a courageous decision!”
With courage and optimism and, after Thomas Reis and Matthias Kreutzer, now with their third coach in just a few weeks, Schalke are starting the rest of the program, which includes a guest game in Karlsruhe after the international break, then a home game against Hannover and three days later the second round match. Cup game at FC St. Pauli. “I firmly believe in my philosophy, namely the importance not only of tactics, but also of mentality,” emphasized Geraerts.
What basic formation he sees for this Schalke team, which has so far conceded the second most goals in the league with 20 goals and had the third weakest running performance, is something he wants to first “feel out” in training. In any case, he has neither a fundamentally offensive nor a defensive orientation from his active football days at clubs like Bruges, Liège and Charleroi. “I was eighth,” he said with a smile, because we had to cover both directions.
Sports director Knäbel rejected the fact that Schalke might have had problems finding a coach given their deplorable overall situation. He revealed that an impressive list of applicants had been processed. “FC Schalke is looking for coaches – even in its current sporting situation.” The Geraerts now presented was the “absolute dream solution”.
