Die Königsblauen

Schalke 04 has announced the hiring of Christoph Metzelder as First Team Manager, effective immediately.
The announcement was made jointly by Horst Heldt and Peter Peters . Metzelder receives an 12-month contract. An announcement on the Schalke backroom staff will be made in the near future.

Statement from Heldt

“I'm very happy to welcome Metzelder to Schalke 04. Felix is an unproven but yet ambitious manager with multiple honours in the Bundesliga as a player. I’m especially impressed with the attidude and determination Christoph has coming into the club with his vision and promise to use the youth team that we have at our disposal .Christoph knows that we will give him all the backing that he needs and will support him in every decision that he makes.
“Our Club has shown promise in recent seasons and we are sad to see Jens Keller leave the club to pursue new pastures and a new challenge , we wish him all the luck in the future. Jens recommened Christopher and as a former player he is a fans favourite so will be able to inspire our young squad to achieve at the highest level domestically and hopefully deliver us continental football again.

Statement from Christoph Metzelder

“The opportunity to manage Schalke was a very promising and easy decision to make. As a player this was the club I felt home at most and I hope that I can give something back and give the fans and directors what they deserve which is Champions League football every year , pushing for domestic honours and bringing players through our outstanding youth team.”

Someone doesn't even know the name of his own manager...

Nice opening post, lad! Will definitely follow:)

Good luck

Is Farfan London bound?

Eurosport understands from reports that Chelsea and Arsenal are chasing the 27 tear-old Farfan, Both London based Premiere League sides are eager to sign Farfan.

Chelsea is reported to rejuvenate the squad and invest for long-trem transfers. Jefferson Farfan is part of this plan. Meanwhile Chelsea’s London rivals Arsenal also show some interest for the Peruvian player, who proved to be a fine footballer at the German Bundesliga.

One obstacle preventing Farfan’s move to England would be the Farfan’s demands on his contract extension with Fc Schalke 04, which will play a decisive role for the amount of money Arsenal or Chelsea spend on Farfan.

Jefferson Farfan - The rise of the Peruvian Playmaker

Farfán began his professional career with Alianza Lima of Peru, with whom he signed in 2001. Although he made some appearances at first-team in 2001, Farfán only began to break through in 2002, becoming an impact player and helping Alianza win the Peruvian championship in 2003.

In his final season with the club in 2004, Farfán scored 14 goals, helping the club to another Peruvian championship.
Following that season he was purchased by Dutch club PSV Eindhoven after being scouted by Guus Hiddink, for a reported 2 million Euro transfer fee.

On 5 June 2008, it was reported that PSV had reached an agreement with German side Schalke 04 over the transfer of Farfán for around €10 million. On 10 June 2008, Schalke 04 officially confirmed the transfer of Farfán on a four-year deal.

On 28 April 2012, Schalke announced that Farfán had signed a contract extension, which would keep him at the club until the summer of 2016.

Very good start, will follow.

Julian Draxler Signs New Deal until 2018

Julian Draxler , the spearhead of Metzelder’s new generation of Schalke players has signed a new deal until June 2018 which will see him earning £70,000 a week with a view to a three year deal extension and most importantly has removed the release clause of £35 Million that has attracted the interest of many of Europe’s premier clubs including Arsenal and PSG.

Draxler made his Bundesliga debut on 15 January 2011 in a 0–1 loss to Hamburger SV. At that time, he was the fourth youngest Bundesliga player ever.One week later, in Schalke's 1–0 win against Hannover 96, he became the second youngest field player after Nuri ?ahin to ever start a Bundesliga game.

On 25 January 2011, Julian Draxler came on as a substitute for Peer Kluge in the quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal against 1. FC Nürnberg in the second half of extra time. He scored his first goal for Schalke 04 in the dying seconds of the game to win the match 3–2 for his club. He scored his first goal in the Bundesliga on 1 April 2011 against St. Pauli.

Draxler opened the scoring in Schalke's 2011 DFB-Pokal Final victory over MSV Duisburg, volleying in from outside the area, scoring the first of what proved to be five unanswered goals for Schalke.

In the 2011–12 season, Draxler played an important part in securing third place and Champions League qualification for Schalke, appearing in 30 of 34 league games, mainly on the left side of midfield to accommodate Lewis Holtby in a central role.
The following season, Draxler continued to prove himself to be an important first team player, scoring in matches against Greuther Fürth, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and in a high-scoring 5–4 victory against Hannover 96.

Draxler continued to play an important role after Holtby's departure and the signing of Michel Bastos, allowing Draxler to impress in his favoured attacking midfield position, including two goals in a 4–1 victory at Wolfsburg. While scoring in a 2–1 win to complete a league double over rivals Borussia Dortmund, Draxler became Schalke's youngest ever player to appear in 100 competitive games.On 3 May, he scored the game's only goal as Schalke beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 1–0 at Borussia-ParkDraxler finished the 2012/13 season as Schalke's joint top goal scorer in the league along with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar after finishing the season with 10 goals and 3 assists.

great to see Draxler sign, he will be world class.

World class player! You'll do well to keep him at the club, it's a step in the right direction if you ask me! Great deal!

Great player and great deal!

Schalke Announce Squad Numbers

Ghana international midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng has joined German side Schalke from Italian giants AC Milan.Boateng, who was born in Berlin but switched his allegiance to Ghana in 2010, has signed a four-year deal.
"I'm happy to be back home in Germany, in the best league in the world," said the 26-year-old ex-Hertha Berlin man.And he is eligible for Schalke's Champions League campaign this season despite having played - and scored - in Milan's preliminary round play-off. He has taken the number 9 shirt.

Schalke Boss Metzelder has revealed his sides squad numbers for the upcoming campaign. Max Meyer will be taking the number seven shirt which is a bold move from the youngster while Goretzka will be taking the number eight shirt which is his own personal preference while Gerald Asamoah will be taking home the number 16.

Full Schalke Numbers:
1 R Fahmann , 2 T Hoogland, 4 B Howedes, 5 F Santana, 6 S Kolasinac, 7 M Meyer , 8 L Goretzka, 9 KP Boateng, 10 J Draxler, 11 C Clemens, 12 M Hoger, 13 J Jones, 14 K Papadopoulos, 15 D Aogo, 16 G Asamoah, 17 J Farfan, 18 B Schipmann, 19 C Obasi, 20 R Klingenburg, 21 K Gokyar, 22 A Uchida, 23 C Fuchs, 24 D Radke 25 KJ Huntelaar, 28 A Szalai, 32 J Matip, 34 T Hildeband & 36 L Unnerstall.

Wilfried Zaha is expected to join on loan from Manchester United and will be assigned the number 67 shirt unless Jefferson Farfan leaves before his arrival and therefore will be given the number 17 shirt.

Klass Jan Out For Four Weeks

Schalke striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar remains confident he will be back for the middle of September despite being ruled out for four weeks

Huntelaar was ruled out today after sustaining a shoulder injury after a heavy fall as a result of falling off a ladder in his native Holland as he lifted down his Mum and Dad’s suitcases from their attic and fell over 12 ft to rthe bottom floor of their Villa in Amsterdam.

KJH “ Today is a very bad day for me , I was already and set for the start of the season but a freak accident has stopped my progress , I feel like I have let the fans and my team down by obtaining such a stupid and ridiculous injury so close to the season starting and I apologise particularly to Cristoph as we already have a stretched squad and with my stupidity we now only have two recognised strikers at the club.”

“However I remain upbeat and confident that I can be in training and back playing within a month and that will be my focus until I can play again “

On 31 August 2010, German club Schalke 04 and Milan reached an agreement to sell Huntelaar to the Bundesliga side for a fee of €14 million.On 19 September 2010, he scored his first goal for Schalke in a 3–1 home defeat against Borussia Dortmund.He scored two goals in the UEFA Champions League Group Stage match against Olympic Lyon on 24 November 2010. On 21 May 2011, Huntelaar scored a brace against MSV Duisburg in the 2011 DFB-Pokal Final, securing a 5–0 win for Schalke, the club's fifth DFB-Pokal championship and their first major trophy in nine years.

On 31 July 2011, Huntelaar started alongside Raul in a DFB-Pokal match against FC Teningen. Huntelaar found the net four times in an 11–1 thrashing of the Landesliga Südbaden side.After falling 3–0 away to VfB Stuttgart on the opening day of the 2011–12 Bundesliga season, Schalke and Huntelaar rebounded well by defeating 1. FC Köln 5–1 at the Veltins Arena. Köln went up 1–0 in the early stages thanks to a Lukas Podolski goal, but Huntelaar netted a hat-trick as his side ran rampant in the second half securing their first points of the season. Huntelaar continued his good goal-scoring form the following weekend, finding the back of the net in the 57th minute against Mainz after being fed in by strike partner Raúl. Schalke had been down 2–0 after 12 minutes, but Huntelaar started a second-half rally that earned the visitors a 4–2 victory.On 25 August 2011, Huntelaar scored four goals, including two penalties, in a 6–1 win in the qualifying play-off round of the UEFA Europa League against HJK Helsinki, allowing Schalke to overturn a 2–0 first leg deficit and advance to the group stage 6–3 on aggregrate.

After the resignation of head coach Ralf Rangnick on 22 September 2011,former Royal Blues manager Huub Stevens returned to the team for their game against Hamburger SV on 2 October.Huntelaar powered his side to victory in Stevens' first game back, heading in a sensational opening goal and netting the winner in the 73' minute with a delightful flick past Jaroslav Drobný.Huntelaar has been in good form thus far in the 2011–12 season as he scored another hat-trick in a 4–1 win over FC Twente in the Europa League,taking his goal tally for the season to 38 goals in 37 appearances.
Meanwhile, Huntelaar himself said that "I think I still have one or two years before I reach my peak", because of his later physical development.

Following his hat-trick against Twente, Huntelaar scored the winning goal in Schalke's 4–1 win over 1. FC Kaiserslautern on 18 March.He scored two more goals against Bayer Leverkusen on 24 March, helping his side to a 2–0 victory and propelling Schalke to third in the Bundesliga standings.[85] Huntelaar's two goals continued his excellent run in Bundesliga and European play, bringing his goal tally to 40 from 39 games.
Huntelaar scored a second-half brace in the club's 3–2 victory over Werder Bremen on the last day of the season, earning his side automatic qualification into the group stage of the Champions League.The two goals also meant that Huntelaar finished the season with 29 goals from 34 league games, making him the first Dutch player to earn top scorer in the Bundesliga.On 23 December 2012, Schalke announced that Huntelaar signed a two-year contract extension to 30 June 2015

Zaha: I had no intention of leaving the BPL

Wilfried Zaha has joined Newcastle on a season long loan despite interest from Schalke.
"It will be a huge honour to play for such a big club. I was very flattered by the club's interest in me back in January and also very happy that they showed interest in me again this summer," said Zaha.

"The Premier League is the best league in the world and that's where I want to play.
"I am very motivated this year to get into the World Cup squad for my country. I know in order to do that I need to have a big season and a successful campaign with Newcastle United.

"I am focused on helping the team achieve success this season and scoring as many goals as I can."

"I never had intention of leaving the world’s greatest league and even though Newcastle cant offer Champions league football , I can’t see Schalke winning in a play off game anyway , they lack the quality and creativity that you need to qualify for the Champions League”

“All there hopes are pinned on Julian Draxler and frankly he is overrated and I wouldn’t be surprised if he as big as a flop as Lauren was in bed.Draxler is like many before him, too young and too much presuure and within 5 years he will be rotting in the Oberliga”

"As big a flop as Lauren was in bed." Wilfried Zaha, 2014.

Ok I waited and waited to comment but i hope you keep this story going because the writing is brilliant! I will now follow after catching up you dont need Zaha Draxler is so much better