The Royal Blues have given teenagers a chance, and when Levent Mercan left the bench to upgrade Amine Harit opposite Borussia Monchengladbach on the first day of the season, he became Schalke’s 100th Bundesliga debutant in the youth team.
bundesliga. com selects five of the rough diamonds that Gelsenkirchen’s skill factory has polished to make them a high-end finished product.
1) Manuel NeuerBundesliga by Schalke: 154 (62 white sheets)
“He’s a perfectly general student, you wouldn’t have chosen him as the long-term professional of elegance,” Neuer said. The character of the German captain fits perfectly with that of his modest hometown, Gelsenkirchen, where he grew up near the site of the Veltins Arena. He may not have stood out from others at his school, but his football skills already in his own elegance.
See: Manuel Neuer’s Roots
Neuer became a member of Schalke in 1991, shortly before his 5th birthday, and 14 years later signed a professional contract with royal blues as the third goalkeeper in the first team. On 19 August 2006, he made his Bundesliga. He made his Aachen debut in position for the injured Frank Rost.
In January, Rost nearly left the club when coach Mirko Slomka discovered a new number one in Neuer, 20, who suddenly fronted a young trio of goalkeepers that included teenager Ralf Fuhrmann.
“Of course, we’ll have to wonder this summer if we’re an experienced goalkeeper,” said Schalke sports director Andreas Moller at the time. They never did.
2) Mesut ‘ezilBundesliga’s for Schalke: 30 games (0 goals)
“Mesut was looking to play football, the rest did not interest him,” said Jochen Herrmann, Ozil’s sports instructor, who had to have a less difficult task to get his young student to concentrate to the fullest of his peers. after laughing at the ball. I felt like he was going to sleep with a football in bed. “
“I’ve been a fan of Schalke,” said Ozil, sporting an impressive salmon haircut in his first interview with Schalke, but was first ignored by his hometown club and moved on. five years at Rot-Weiss Essen until 2005: he put on the mythical blue T-shirt for the first time.
The name of the German youth category A reached the end of his first season, beating Bayern Munich in the final, and took the lead in the first team that summer, and retired in the Bundesliga against Eintracht Frankfurt in August 2006 at age. 17. .
“They can tell me a lot about Lincoln,” said Ozil, who would compete with the Brazilian for the team’s No. 10 spot, as he made 19 high-level appearances on his first crusade towards Schalke’s final moment in the Bundesliga.
The love story deserves to have lasted longer, ending in January 2008 with an 11-hour winter transfer to Werder Bremen. “We have made the decision not to extend Mesut’s contract,” said Muller, who had had passionate conversations with Ozil. father. ” We think Mesut is a fabulous talent, but we made our decision. “
3) Leroy SaneRécord of the Bundesliga for Schalke: matches (11 goals)
Bayer Leverkusen enthusiasts are used to asking “What could have been?”Sano is another source of great sorrow. He had already spent three years at the Schalke Youth Academy when he moved to Leverkusen in 2008. He even won the name West Germany with Die Werkself’s youth team in 2010, but returned to Schalke three years later, and his maxim is Leverkusen’s defeat.
“One day the Schalke approached my father. My parents asked me if I’d like to [move on to the Schalke]. I looked for him,” said Sane, who joined the Royal Blues at the age of 8 after making his football debut at The Wattenscheid local club where his father played Bundesliga football in the 1990s
“We had played against Schalke with Wattenscheid. I realized it’s a special club. “
Look: Put yourself in a position to be dazzled with the five most sensible goals of Leroy Sané in the Bundesliga
Schalke knew they had a special skill and has become a central figure in the under-19 team assembled under legendary club youth coach Norbert Elgert in the 2013/14 crusade before receiving a first-team call from coach Jens Keller in March 2014 with existing Augsburg. Philipp Max boy.
Max is expected to leave the club to locate normal high-level football, but Sane will soon be at the center of first-team action, making his Bundesliga deyet in April 2014 at the age of 18. He played and scored in the UEFA Champions League. Tie in the league with Real Madrid the following season, but still helped the under-19 team win the national name in the same campaign.
4) Julian DraxlerBundesliga by Schalke: 119 games (18 goals)
“A great feeling,” is how Draxler described his DFB Cup victory in 2011. “A year or two ago, I watched the players lift the cup on television. Now I have it in my hands. ” It’s no wonder Draxler displayed childish astonishment after scoring the first goal of MSV Duisburg’s 5-0 win at the Olympiastadion in Berlin – he was just 17 years old.
Barely old enough to have a party beer with his teammates in the locker room, the teenage prodigy had just made his mark on german football history books through the youngest winner of the competition.
He had already claimed an exclusive position in the annals of Schalke by making his first-team debut in January of the same year, replacing Ivan Rakitic opposite Hamburg when he was only 17 years and 117 days old. No younger player had represented the Royal Blues. .
See: Julian Draxler: Made in the Bundesliga
At the beginning of 20 March thirteen was already playing his 100th competitive match with the club and on 3 May 2014 he innovated again: at 20 years, 7 months and thirteen days, Draxler played his 100th Bundesliga match. Charly Korbel’s record as the youngest centurion in the German elite.
“He’s very focused, and he’s neither reckless nor reckless. Everything he does makes sense,” said Felix Magath, the guy who gave Draxler his Bundesliga debut and not a soft-inspired coach. you need to score. That makes him a difficult opponent for each and every one. “
5) Benedikt Huwedes Bundesliga for Schalke: 240 games (12 goals)
Some players were born leaders: Huwedes is one of them, as Schalke also said by handing over the captain’s armband of his under-19 team when he joined them in 2005 and led the team that won the German Class A name the following year before signing his title. first professional contract in January 2007.
However, his first-team debut did not come until October of the following year, when the 19-year-old got into the Champions League, another sign of Schalke’s confidence in him and his youth. A Bundesliga bow came three days later, the first of more than two hundred most sensible German appearances for the Royal Blues, most of which were with the bracelet.
A player who has given it his all, H-wedes’ commitment to the cause has made him an icon of the Schalke. He has also become, along with Draxler, one of the club’s World Cups in Brazil in 2014, and was praised through a living legend of the game, Der Kaiser himself.
“Benedikt Huwedes is the one who inspired me the most,” said Franz Beckenbauer, who admitted that Schalke’s headquarters had adapted perfectly to play as a right-back with his country. “He played in another position and played brilliantly. He did it brilliantly. “
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