The outgoing sports director Peter Knäbel does not see his greatest success at the traditional football club Schalke 04 in the sporting field.

“This unification of the club between fans and team, that was actually the most beautiful thing I have experienced,” said the 57-year-old, who will leave the Royal Blues at the end of the season, in a Sky interview.

After the relegation in 2021, some fans had attacked the players massively at their own stadium after returning from the decisive defeat in Bielefeld; the relationship between the professionals and the supporters was at its worst in a long time. When they were promoted a year later, the fans celebrated as if Schalke had won the league title. “Getting this bond back so strongly at all is what I am personally most proud of,” said Knäbel.

By contrast, his sporting record since February 2021, when he was promoted from director of youth development to sporting director, has been poor, with the immediate relegation and the crash to 15th place in the 2nd division. Knäbel, who has recently come under increasing criticism for transfer flops and wrong coaching decisions, defended himself: “I think we have set the framework within which we could have made it. But these are only framework conditions in which you are then at the mercy of luck and chance. Of course, we didn’t decide everything right.”

You had “a competitive budget.” But that means, he added: “It can also go wrong.” He himself “never played the role of sports director, but I filled the role as it can be filled with me”. He is not interested in the “big show,” said Knäbel, adding that people knew that “when they chose me.” Nevertheless, he emphasized: “In the end, I’ll just say: Schalke is awesome!”