How can the reconstruction succeed?
Schalke breaks with club legends for “necessary impulses”
May 22, 2024, 6:40 p.m
Club legends no longer play a role in Schalke’s rebuilding. After Gerald Asamoah, another club icon has to leave the cash-strapped club. S04 is now all about “long-term goals” to which everything else is subordinated.
As it rebuilds for the future, FC Schalke 04 has parted ways with another club legend. After Gerald Asamoah, Mike Büskens also has no future in Gelsenkirchen, the second division football club announced. The crowd favorite’s contract expired at the end of this season and will not be renewed.
“Buyo has celebrated great successes with S04 over many years as a player and coach, most recently as coach of the 2021/2022 promotion team, and has successfully accompanied talents on their way to the professionals. We are very grateful to him for the work he has done in the various roles “said Schalke’s CEO Matthias Tillmann.
The end of the collaboration is part of “fundamental changes in the professional performance center,” as the club statement said. In addition to Büskens, goalkeeping coach Simon Henzler and some unnamed employees also have to go.
Manga and Tonello new at Schalke
“In order to achieve our long-term goals, especially the return to the Bundesliga, we need profound changes in order to be able to provide the necessary impetus, we are convinced of that,” said Tillmann. “We did this in the sporting management, for example, by signing Ben Manga, and we are now continuing this path at the other levels of the licensing area.”
Manga will work at Schalke in the future as director of squad planning, scouting and the youth department. Before the separation from Büskens, the end of the collaboration with club icon Asamoah had already been announced.
Schalke had already parted ways with Mathias Schober at the end of March. The role of Director Knappenschmiede & Development will no longer apply in the future. For this purpose, former Bundesliga player Raffael Tonello was hired as the new head of the youth training center and top talent scout. The 48-year-old started his job on April 1st and works closely alongside sports director Marc Wilmots.