FC Schalke 04 has officially presented Onur Cinel’s successor as U17 coach. He comes from SC Paderborn.
After two successful years as U17 coach, Onur Cinel has left FC Schalke 04. He will continue his career at Austrian second division club FC Liefering.
On Monday evening, S04 presented their successor. Thomas Bertels will be on the sidelines with the B Juniors in the future. This means that what this editorial team already reported at the weekend has come to pass.
Bertels comes to Gelsenkirchen from SC Paderborn. There, he coached the U21s for the past one and a half years and shaped them into a top team in the Oberliga Westfalen – with promotion to the Regionalliga West in the season just ended as the crowning achievement.
“Thomas did a very good job in Paderborn, which he rounded off with this year’s promotion of the U21s to the Regionalliga West,” Schalke’s head of youth development Mathias Schober was quoted as saying about the signing of the new coach in a club statement. Bertels is a coach with great potential, Schober added. “Thomas fits perfectly into the Knappenschmiede in terms of character and humanity and is also a Schalke fan.”
Schalke: New U17 coach played for Paderborn for a long time
Before Bertels took over the Paderborn reserves, the 36-year-old had already been involved in other functions as a youth coach at SCP. And he also spent the majority of his playing career with the current second-division club (165 appearances for the professionals between 2011 and 2019). Now he is venturing the step to Schalke.
“The good talks with Mathias Schober convinced me to start a new chapter in my coaching career at Schalke,” Bertels explains. “The Knappenschmiede and FC Schalke 04 are a very good address in Germany and I am looking forward to being able to accompany young footballers in their next steps here at Schalke. Together with the players and my coaching team, I want to build on the successes from previous seasons.”
An ambitious plan: A year ago Schalke celebrated the German championship, in the past season the royal blue talents won the U17 Bundesliga West and failed in the final round against the later champions Arminia Bielefeld.
Meanwhile, it has already been decided who will take over Bertel’s position with Paderborn’s second team. The current U19 coach Dennis Schmitt will move up to the U21s.