On Tuesday, a 29th player will travel to FC Schalke 04’s training camp in Mittersill. It is the heavily courted Rodrigo Zalazar.
Examination successfully passed: Rodrigo Zalazar is healthy again and will travel to FC Schalke 04’s training camp in Mittersill on Tuesday. This was confirmed by Gerald Asamoah, head of the licensed player department, on the sidelines of the first training session this morning.
“Everything was okay in the examination. He is expected to fly on Tuesday morning,” said Asamoah. He will not yet train on the day of his arrival. On Tuesday evening, Schalke will meet FC Copenhagen in a test match in Kufstein (6 p.m.). Zalazar will train with Schalke’s team on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and may be part of the line-up on Saturday when S04 face Gornik Zabrze (3.30pm). The 23-year-old playmaker had been absent in the first two tests in Spelle-Venhaus (3:0) and Bocholt (2:2).
The fact that the Schalkers are flying Zalazar in is a sign that transfer negotiations with possible new clubs are not close to being concluded. Sporting director André Hechelmann has received several enquiries from clubs, but none has yet reached the Schalker demands.
The Königsblauen will train twice on Tuesday. According to Asamoah, it’s all about tackling and deep runs, which will be very intense. “The guys who joined later will be taken out earlier,” he says. By that he means Henning Matriciani and Kenan Karaman, who did not fully return until training camp.
Asamoah himself will leave Mittersill for two days. He’ll watch the game on Tuesday night, get up at 3am the morning after, fly from Salzburg to Frankfurt at 6am for a meeting of the DFB managers’ conference. He returns on Thursday evening.