Just as the spirit of the wine lives forever and ever in Asbach Uralt, the spirit of the Eurofighter can no longer be gotten out of the bottle at Schalke. 26 years after winning the UEFA Cup, the longing for the heroism of that time has promoted another legendary player to a key position at the club: Marc Wilmots, 54, is now taking over as sports director. At the Gelsenkirchen second division club he meets several comrades from those happy days that the club cherishes as the good old days: team manager Gerald Asamoah, 45, currently administrative head of the professional team, assistant coach Mike Büskens, 55, and supervisory board member Youri Mulder , 54.
According to the club, Wilmots signed “a long-term contract”. The previous sports director André Hechelmann, 39, will act as technical director in the future, a position that did not yet exist in the organizational chart. For the squad planner Hechelmann, this probably means that he will have to take a step back in the hierarchy and will be present less often in public.
Nicknamed “Willi – the fighting pig”: Marc Wilmots scored a goal against Inter Milan in the UEFA Cup final.
(Photo: imago sportfotodienst/imago/Uwe Kraft)
Wilmots, on the other hand, should now regularly move into the center of events as the face of the club. His appointment is the result of a comprehensive restructuring of the club’s management. While Matthias Tillmann, 40, took up his job as CEO at the beginning of the year, sports director Peter Knäbel, 57, tendered his early departure.
“I want to be at the forefront of the movement that will give Schalke new strength,” says Wilmots
There will no longer be a sports director in the club for the time being, which, according to the new club boss Tillmann, should give football not less, but more importance: As director, Wilmots will have more time and concentration for sporting issues than Knäbel has to spend on his diverse board tasks was able to. “We were able to attract a man who knows the football business very well from many perspectives and who knows how a successful dressing room works,” said Tillmann about Wilmots. Incidentally, he did not address the folkloristic aspect of the comeback in his statement – that comes naturally anyway.
Wilmots is taking on a position in sports management for the first time in his career. After his active career, which he ended at Schalke in 2003, he worked, among other things, for four years as the Belgian national coach (2012 to 2016) and briefly as the national coach of the Ivory Coast and Iran. His last engagement ended two years ago: he coached the Moroccan club Raja Casablanca for three months. “I want to be at the forefront of the movement that will give Schalke new strength. In the medium and long term it has to be about developing the squad and returning to the Bundesliga,” said Wilmots in a club statement. In the short term, Schalke has apparently only set itself the goal of a carefree second half of the season: they are currently in 14th place in the table, seven points in three games have recently provided some tailwind after the team that was newly formed in the summer had some questionable ideas.
Last but not least, the Royal Blues have added an additional Belgian touch with their new sports director: coach Karel Geraerts – hired on Youri Mulder’s recommendation – also comes from the neighboring country. The close relations with Benelux were also a feature of the Eurofighter spirit motivated by the Dutchman Huub Stevens in 1997