20 years ago, Schalke manager Rudi Assauer snatched two players from SV Werder Bremen: Ailton and Krstajic. The Werder officials reacted with shock. But Werder wasn’t the only one who antagonized Assauer these days.
“Whatever Toni says goes in and out. You can throw it in the trash immediately.” It didn’t take long until Schalke manager Rudi Assauer was also annoyed by his Brazilian star signing Ailton. The (good) relationship between the two hadn’t even lasted a full season. At this point, they had all that behind them at Werder a long time ago. Because in Bremen they had already had their experiences with the idiosyncratic “ball lightning” 20 years ago.
But at Schalke, the legendary manager Assauer first had to realize that his “royal transfer”, which had caused so much trouble, might have gone wrong. And indeed, when Ailton publicly admitted – “Schalke don’t understand me” – it was clear to everyone that the whole thing had been a huge misunderstanding with tragic collateral damage.
This mistake was sealed late on October 12, 2003 in a hotel in Bremen. At that time, Assauer, Ailton and his manager toasted the Brazilian’s move from SV Werder to FC Schalke 04 for the 2004/05 season in a suite with champagne. But because Ailton was dissatisfied with his club at the time (“They didn’t give 100 percent effort”), he didn’t completely rule out an early move during the winter break: “It’s not clear yet that I’ll stay until the summer. Maybe “I’ll change in the winter. But that’s up to the clubs.”
“What Rudi did is unbelievable”
In fact, the Brazilian had a point when he pointed out that Werder had left him struggling. In the summer, after Ailton was once again late from his hometown for the team’s training camp, Allofs publicly said: “Now is not the time to extend the contract.”
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From Bremen’s point of view, this behavior was understandable, but Rudi Assauer recognized the opportunity to lure the accurate Brazilian to the Ruhr area. And that worked. Even more. At the same time, the Schalke manager also snapped up the sought-after defender Mladen Krstajic – even though Assauer had a special relationship with the Werder officials from his time in Bremen. Until those dramatic days in October 2003.
Because Werder reacted collectively with shock at Assauer’s brazen behavior. Jürgen L. Born, CEO of Werder Bremen, said angrily: “Assauer and our supervisory board Dr. Böhmert have been friends for almost 30 years. And then he comes here to the stadium, drinks beer for free and also picks on the best players. ” And Böhmert himself was also completely shocked: “What Rudi did to me during the transfers of Ailton and Krstajic is unbelievable to me. Rudi damaged me in a way that no other person has ever done. I couldn’t believe that a friend behaves like that. And I can’t imagine that a friendship can continue to exist under these circumstances.”
Assauer comments on the allegations calmly
For Böhmert, a world had come to an end because he had not correctly interpreted his friend Assauer’s flippant sayings (“I already have one player, I’ll get the other away from you too”). And because the team also reacted in complete shock. “When we heard the news of Ailton’s move, we were blown away. Losing two such top performers is a bitter pill to swallow,” said Fabian Ernst.
And so Böhmert formulated his feelings towards Assauer in a drastic way: “You have destroyed my life’s work!” The long-time president was not alone in his anger at the time. When Born was asked what he would do the next time he met Assauer, he simply replied: “Just wait and see where I meet him.” Werder manager Klaus Allofs also didn’t turn his heart into a murder pit: “Rudi Assauer’s behavior was dishonest. In the past there were different rules in negotiations between Assauer and Werder Bremen.”
And what did Rudi Assauer think about all the allegations from Bremen? He only said one thing: “Schalke adhered to the code of honor.” Looking back, it’s difficult to say exactly what he meant by that, because at the same time the Schalke manager was already preying on players from other clubs. Kevin Kuranyi and Marcelo Bordon were supposed to come from Stuttgart, Bernd Schneider and Oliver Neuville from Leverkusen and Assauer had already picked out someone from their neighbor from Bochum, Paul Freier. Not all of the changes worked out later, but Assauer earned the reputation of the “most hated manager in the league” at the time. Was Assauer’s irritating behavior in those days in the fall 20 years ago actually worth it? In the case of the Brazilian Ailton it was rather questionable.
Schalke fans invite Ailton to the championship celebration
The goalscorer wasn’t necessarily welcomed with open arms by the Royal Blue supporters at Schalke, after all, before he moved in the spring, he had said about his new hometown: “Everything I’ve heard so far about Gelsenkirchen is a disaster.” When he then drove up in a rental car with a Dortmund license plate, he quickly had to promise to get a car with a Gelsenkirchen number.
In this context, he also assured the fans that he would also like to adapt the green area in front of his house to his new employer: “I’m still dyeing the lawn in my garden blue. Green is the Werder color, but now I’m a real Schalke player. ” The Schalke Fan Initiative eV nevertheless wrote him an open letter: “Dear Mr. Goncalves da Silva. We didn’t choose Gelsenkirchen and neither did Schalke. It’s us! Come and have a nice meal with us – and with us after the first championship celebration The next morning you won’t even know where Bremen is.”
As is well known, this did not happen. And in Bremen they quickly recovered after the initial shock. Klaus Allofs said to the fans at the time: “I promise that we will find new, good players for defense and attack. That has always been the case in the past. It has now become a tradition that we bring out a new player.” And Allofs finally followed up his full-bodied words with actions – and signed Miroslav Klose, an at least equivalent replacement for the Brazilian Ailton, who was soon to cause Rudi Assauer so many headaches.