Rio world champion Benedikt Höwedes is worried about his heart club Schalke 04, which is threatened with relegation. It is “fundamentally worrying” where the second division club currently stands – namely in 14th place with just four points ahead of a direct relegation zone. “We all have to ring the alarm bells,” said the Royal Blues’ honorary captain to the Sports Information Service (sid) on Tuesday.
It is “important that we hold on to the second division this year and then of course continually take steps forward in order to end up in the first division again at some point,” said Höwedes, who captained Schalke 04 from 2011 to 2017 had led onto the field: “Because this club belongs in the first league!”
You can now “talk as much as you like, but it has to be lived by every single person who is somehow involved here,” said the 35-year-old. He wore the Schalke jersey from 2001 to 2018, played a total of 333 competitive games for the Knappen, won the DFB Cup in 2011 and stormed to the semi-finals of the Champions League in the same season. At the moment he can “only appeal to you to stay positive” and with the “radiance of this club and the fans behind you” “a lot is already possible.”
Most recently there was a devastating 0:3 in Magdeburg, but the game against “promotion candidate number one” FC St. Pauli on Friday (6.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the second division and on Sky) is again “tendantly” coming to coach Karel Geraerts’ team because the expectations are different,” said Höwedes. “Maybe it’s also a chance to just play a little more freely and win a game, which on paper might be in Pauli’s favor for now.”
For him, a first-line commitment to his youth club is out of the question: “The desire is always there, but it doesn’t quite fit into my family concept at the moment, if I’m honest,” said Höwedes. At least for the time being: “We are also communicating and seeing how things make sense.”
Schalke 04 warns of traffic chaos
Because of the impending warning strike on local public transport, Schalke 04 called on visitors to Friday’s home game against FC St. Pauli to be careful when planning their journey. “Significant restrictions are to be expected” when arriving and departing, it said on Schalke’s homepage. “Of course it’s unfortunate for a football game like this. “We always encourage people to come by public transport and not by car because that relieves the burden,” said Schalke’s CEO Matthias Tillmann to the sid: “It’s an enormous logistical problem when trains don’t run.”
Schalke fans can enter the stadium area via the north entrance at 3:30 p.m., and the other entrances are scheduled to open two hours before kick-off at 4:30 p.m. In general, the people of Gelsenkirchen asked for forbearance and patience.
Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Published/Updated: Frank Heike, Hamburg Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
It is expected that there will not be enough parking spaces at the arena, so the city of Gelsenkirchen will release the right-hand lanes of some streets near the stadium as parking space. Shuttle buses will also run. If possible, fans should come to the stadium by bike or on foot. 1,000 additional bicycle racks are to be provided on the lawn in front of the west entrance and guarded by the public order office.
On Friday, SC Freiburg will also play in the Bundesliga against record champions Bayern Munich (8.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on DAZN). Second division team Hertha BSC will welcome promotion candidates Holstein Kiel from 6.30 p.m. (Sky). There are also likely to be problems with arrival in the run-up to these games.
