Schalke 04 is aiming for the top of the standings against Paderborn—with the best defense in its professional history and goalkeeper Loris Karius, who had already been thinking about ending his career.

Loris Karius has been at Schalke for less than a year, and yet he has already made history with the Royal Blues. That’s because he’s in goal behind Schalke 04’s statistically best defense in professional history—having conceded just seven goals in the first 13 league games.

“We defend as a unit, from the number nine up front to the number one in the back,” explains the keeper, who has already recorded seven shutouts. He says this is “a bit risky,” and everyone has to “know their role inside and out”—but: “So far, it’s always worked out.” So well, in fact, that Karius and his teammates are aiming for the top spot in the 2. Bundesliga in Friday’s top-of-the-table clash (6:30 p.m./Sky) against SC Paderborn.

And on top of that, they’re performing better than any other Schalke team in the 63 seasons since the Bundesliga’s founding. Even the legendary 1972 runner-up team—in which Norbert Nigbur played in goal behind libero Klaus Fichtel, and up front Reinhard Libuda, Klaus Fischer, and Erwin Kremers, and which until recently was considered the benchmark with just five goals conceded in its first eleven games, has been left in the dust by the current team—because back then, in the twelfth game, they suffered a 0–7 drubbing at Mönchengladbach’s Bökelberg Stadium.

The closest to Karius and Co. 20 years ago were Frank Rost and center backs Marcelo Bordon and Mladen Krstajic, who conceded nine goals during the same period. And by the end of the season, they set the Schalke Bundesliga record with 31 goals against. If you’re looking for even better goal-preventers in the club’s history, you’ll have to go back to 1934—when the “Schalker Kreisel,” featuring club legends Ernst Kuzorra and Fritz Szepan, allowed opponents like SV Höntrop and SpVgg Herten just five goals in their first 13 matches in the Gauliga Westfalen. Goalkeeper Hermann Mellage, by the way, was a steelworker.

More than 90 years later, his successor almost ended up seeking a job outside of professional soccer as well. Karius had been thinking about retiring before the second-division club came knocking on the former Champions League goalkeeper’s door. “If Schalke hadn’t reached out, I probably would have even ended my career,” the 32-year-old admitted in an interview with Sport Bild. After all, while he was waiting for a new opportunity, he had already tried his hand at other things. “I performed as a DJ and walked the runway for Hugo Boss at Milan Fashion Week,” he said.

But at Schalke, Karius got back on his feet as a goalkeeper—something he hadn’t managed at Besiktas Istanbul, Union Berlin, and Newcastle United after that fateful 2018 Champions League final with Liverpool against Real Madrid, in which he made two major blunders (1–3). With the Royal Blues—who have become promotion contenders thanks largely to their defensive strength—he is not only the undisputed number one but also a leader off the field. He’s the one who takes the pressure off ahead of the clash for the top spot in the standings and asks, “What do we have to lose?” Maybe a record for the ages.