Portrait
On 4 May 1904 a group of 14 and 15-year-old boys founded a football club they called Westfalia Schalke. To gain admission to organised club competition, the club merged with a gymnastics club known as Turnverein 1877 Schalke eight years later. But in 1924 the footballers parted company with the gymnasts and adopted the name FC Schalke 04, changing the club colors from red and yellow to blue and white in the process.
Schalke's rise to becoming Germany's most popular team began at this time. The "Schalker Kreisel" – an elegant, flowing style of football based upon a flat passing game imported from Scotland – became the trademark of a team centred on its charismatic star player Ernst Kuzorra. Along with his brother-in-law Fritz Szepan, who captained the side for many years, Kuzorra determined the fortunes of the club in every respect, a club which like its players enjoyed strong links with the mining industry. These links gave the team its nickname of the "blue-and white Knappen" (Knappe being the German term for a miner who has successfully completed his apprenticeship).
From 1927 the Royal Blues began to dominate the game, first in the Ruhr district, then in the west of the country, and eventually across the whole of Germany. Between 1933 and 1942 they reached the German championship final nine times. In 1933 Schalke went down 3 0 to Fortuna Düsseldorf, but a year later they came back from behind to defeat 1. FC Nürnberg 2-1 in the 1934 final, the first of seven championship successes. In 1935 Schalke defended their title, beating VfB Stuttgart 6-4 in the final, and in 1937 they overcame 1. FC Nürnberg again, this time 2-0. In 1939 the Royal Blues celebrated the highest victory ever achieved in the final of a national German competition when they steam-rollered Admira Vienna 9-0. But in 1940 they defended their title only by the narrowest of margins, beating SC Dresden by the only goal of the game. And when the Royal Blues defeated Vienna Wien 2-0 in 1943 to claim their sixth championship the "Schalke legend" had already been born, a legend that will retain its fascination for generations to come and which laid the basis for the club's legions of fans.
After World War II the Royal Blues struggled to maintain their high sporting standards. Although Schalke soon became established amongst the leading teams in the Oberliga West after a few initial problems, they picked up only one championship title in the post-war period, their last to date. In 1958 the team coached by Edi Frühwirth and captained by Bernhard Klodt beat SV Hamburg 3-0.
When the Bundesliga came into being in 1963 Schalke were naturally among the 16 founder members, but in the first ten years they largely struggled against relegation. Indeed, in the 1964/65 season the Royal Blues would have gone down had the German Football Association not increased the size of the league to 18 teams.
At the end of the 1960s a new, promising young team was built around the legendary right-winger Reinhard Libuda, who was known to everyone simply as "Stan" (after Stanley Matthews) on account of his dribbling ability. In 1972 coach Ivica Horvat's team finished runners-up in the Bundesliga and won the German Cup for only the second time (the first being in 1937) when they trounced 1. FC Kaiserslautern 5-0. But the club's involvement in a match-fixing scandal and the resulting suspensions for several leading players saw the team eventually break apart, despite finishing second in the league again in 1977. The sporting decline began.
This decline made itself felt in the 1980s in particular, despite the legendary 6-6 draw after extra time against Bayern Munich in the semi-final of the German Cup. Schalke were relegated to the second division on three separate occasions – 1981, 1983 and 1988. Twice they came straight back up, but the third time they were forced to tolerate three long years in the lower division. Yet despite the lack of success on the field, Schalke remained one of Germany's most popular clubs, with average gates in the Park Stadium, where the club moved in 1973, higher than those of many Bundesliga teams.
This loyalty was to be rewarded when the Royal Blues eventually returned to the top flight in 1991. Although forced to fend off relegation once again in the 1993/94 season, the successful fight for survival laid the foundations for a Schalke team that in 1996 secured qualification for a European club competition for the first time in 19 years. And it was to get even better. Victories over Roda Kerkrade, Trabzonspor, Club Bruges, Valencia, and Tenerife saw Schalke through to the final of the UEFA Cup, where they overcame Inter Milan over two legs to claim the trophy in sensational fashion. In a dramatic penalty shoot-out in the San Siro on 21 May 1997 Marc Wilmots slotted home the deciding spot-kick for coach Huub Stevens's team, a team that will forever be known as the "Eurofighters" on account of their superb fighting qualities.
Yet the club managed to perform minor miracles off the pitch, too. In 1998 work began on the construction of a new multipurpose arena to replace the dilapidated Park Stadium. Holding over 60,000 fans, the VELTINS-Arena was completed in just 32 months. And with a pitch that can be slid outside the stadium, a retractable roof, a movable South Stand and a videocube scoreboard, the Arena can justifiably call itself the most modern stadium in Europe. The finance needed to pay for the 191 million euro stadium was raised entirely from the private sector.
With the inauguration of German football's newest theatre of dreams just weeks away, the Royal Blues stood on the verge of reviving the club's successes of old. In probably the most dramatic ending to a season in Bundesliga history, the very last shot of the final game – a hotly disputed indirect free-kick in the 94th minute that led to Bayern Munich's last-gasp equaliser at SV Hamburg – denied Schalke their eighth German championship title. But there was to be some consolation. By finishing runners-up Schalke qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time. And a week later they defeated third-division Union Berlin 2-0 to lift the German Cup for the third time, a trophy they were to defend a year later with a 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
Schalke 04 finished runners-up in the Bundesliga in 2005 to qualify for the Champions League for the second time. Head coach Ralf Rangnick's side also reached the DFB Cup final, where they were unfortunate to lose by the odd goal in three to Bayern Munich. In 2005/06 Schalke finished third in the group stage of the Champions League before going on to reach the semi-final of the UEFA Cup. The Royal Blues went out to the eventual winners of the competition, Seville, after suffering defeat in extra-time of the second leg. Schalke qualified for the Champions League for a third time in the club's history in 2007 after finishing second in the Bundesliga, a success they repeated in 2010 when again finishing the league campaign as runners-up.
The 2010/2011 season proved very eventful. Though the Royal Blues finished only 14th in the Bundesliga, they certainly made their mark in the cup competitions. Schalke reached the last four of the Champions League before bowing out to Manchester United. They did succeed in lifting the DFB Cup, however. Skipper Manuel Neuer and his team-mates made no mistake, securing a convincing 5-0 win against MSV Duisburg.
