“All the more painful for me”
Club icon Asamoah has to leave Schalke 04
March 22, 2024, 3:56 p.m
Gerald Asamoah is a legend at Schalke 04, and as a player the attacker becomes a crowd favorite in Gelsenkirchen. Now the former national player has to leave the club. Asamoah makes no secret of the pain of parting.
FC Schalke 04 is parting ways with club icon Gerald Asamoah in the summer. As the second division football team announced, the contract with the 45-year-old former national player as head of the licensed player department, which expires on June 30th, will not be extended. The elimination of the position without replacement is part of the club’s personnel restructuring.
“Everyone knows how much Schalke 04 means to me. Here I not only played football and took my first steps in management, but over more than two decades I developed into the person I am today. This makes it all the more painful for me that this chapter ends for now,” Asamoah said. And further: “I will remain connected to the club forever. For me this is more than just lip service: once a Schalke player, always a Schalke club.”
“The role will no longer exist”
Former striker Asamoah played a total of 381 competitive games for Gelsenkirchen between 1999 and 2013 and celebrated two DFB Cup victories. He then worked in several positions at the club and has been team manager since March 2019. By the end of the 2023/2024 season, he and the team should ensure a smooth transition within the professional performance center.
“As part of the ongoing, sustainable restructuring of the sport, we as club leaders have decided that the role of Head of License will no longer exist at Schalke for the new season. The collaboration with Gerald will end accordingly,” explained Schalke’s CEO Matthias Tillmann. “With the completion of his management studies at DFL and DFB, the time has come for Gerald to take the next step. In a personal conversation, I told him that we cannot give him this perspective at the moment.”
Baumgartl banned for the second time
Meanwhile, coach Karel Geraerts has also made personnel changes – and moved Timo Baumgartl to the second team in the regional league. “I have made the decision that Timo will be part of the U23 in the future because I am not satisfied with his performance. In the training sessions over the past few weeks, I did not get the impression that he will help us in the remaining important competitive games.” said Geraerts.
Baumgartl appeared in twelve league games for Schalke this season. The central defender was not called into the squad three times recently. For the 28-year-old, it wasn’t the first time he was demoted to the U23s. The former Stuttgart player was suspended and sent to the second team in September after public criticism of Geraerts’ predecessor Thomas Reis.