Schalke struggles
June 18, 2009
The man who won the league title with Wolfsburg came back from his traditional post-season break on Puerto Rico this week and was immediately confronted with the kind of personality issues for which Schalke have become nearly synonymous.
Defensive midfielder Jermaine Jones, the son of an American father and a German mother, announced in an interview with The New York Times that he would play his international soccer in future for the US rather than Germany.
Jones, who had taken the field for the "Nationalelf" in three friendlies, insinuated that his decision came in part because of racial bias.
"When somebody looks at me, I'm not the perfect German," Jones was quoted as saying. "When I look at people in the States, they look more like me. In Germany, with my tattoos people say, 'Ooh, he's not a good man.' But look at Beckham, he has tattoos and no one says that. Maybe because I don't have blue eyes and blond hair."
The German media reacted with outrage, and Jones had little choice but to disavow the interview, saying he was misquoted and hadn't authorized his statements.
Now, the last thing a coach taking over the Bundesliga's most overpaid and underachieving squad needs is to have one of his team leaders - inadvertently or not - sniping at the German national side over alleged racism.
And to make matters worse, if Jones does play for the US, he will be involved in World Cup qualifiers that will make him miss significant parts of Schalke's pre-season training.
The Jones controversy is just a taste of the difficulties Magath, who surprised everybody by bolting for Gelsenkirchen just as he was winning the league with Wolfsburg, will encounter in his attempt to improve on Schalke's disastrous eighth-place finish in 2008-2009. Those problems fall into three main categories.
The players
Schalke are the second wealthiest club in the Bundesliga (Forbes estimate: 365 million euros or $510 million), but if Magath is to succeed immediately, he'll have to do it on the cheap. After going on a historic spending spree last summer, the Royal Blues say they currently have only around 5 million euros to spend on strengthening the squad.
The creative department is in particular need of help. Jefferson Farfan showed bursts of promise last season but nowhere near the sort of form to justify the 10-million-euro transfer fee Schalke laid out to acquire him.
Orlando Engelaar, who cost some 5 million euros, looks completely out of his depth in the Bundesliga, and Swiss-Croatian wunderkind Ivan Rakitic spent most of the second half of the season on the bench and appears to have completely lost confidence.
Schalke could, of course, improve their personnel budget situation by selling off players. But the only current members of the squad likely to attract buyers are those Magath has said he specifically wants to keep - Jones, striker Kevin Kuranyi, right back Rafinha and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
If something doesn't give, Magath may have to start 2009-2010 with essentially the same squad that earned only one point from its final five matches last season.
The management
Schalke has a complex management structure often riddled with contentiousness and headed by a tax consultant (chairman Josef Schnusenberg) and a sports journalist (director of business affairs Peter Peters).
One byproduct of the ongoing tug-of-war at the top is a tendency to blame coaches for lack of success - and be quick with the ax.
The last coach to lead Schalke in two consecutive full seasons was Huub Stevens, who oversaw Schalke from 1996 to 2002. Since then, Jupp Heynckes, Ralf Rangnick, Mirko Slomka and Fred Rutten have all tried their luck with the Royal Blues and been given the boot as soon as the team hit a fallow spell.
Having just hoisted the "salad bowl" with a perennial Bundesliga also-ran, Magath arrives in Gelsenkirchen with more credibility than any of his predecessors. And he has more power, too, since he will also serve as sports director.
But after the team failed to qualify for international competition for the first time in eight years, Schalke management will want to see the squad secure at least fifth place. If they come up short, even King Felix may find himself sitting atop a wobbly throne.
The fans
Along with Dortmund, Schalke have the most committed, likeable down-to-earth supporters in the league. There's just one problem, and that can be summed up in four digits: 1958.
That was the last time Schalke won a German championship - as the representative of the "Upper League West," one of many parallel divisions that existed before the creation of the united Bundesliga in 1963.
Rivals Dortmund, by contrast, have won the Bundesliga three times since then, and the lack of a modern-day title means that Schalke fans are apt to ratchet up pressure on and even turn against players, with Kuranyi their favorite target last season. (Kuranyi still ended the season as Schalke's leading goal scorer.)
The negative synergy of fans' demands and players' fears of not living up to them is one likely source of Schalke's inability to get the results that decide titles - and something Magath did not encounter in Wolfsburg, a relatively young club with no tragic past to overcome.
Should Magath achieve what many German football fans consider the impossible and win the league, he will cement his reputation as one of the greatest Bundesliga coaches and ensure that numerous streets in Gelsenkirchen and environs are named after him.
But as he must have known when he accepted the job, coaching Schalke is different from leading any other team in the league. And with the squad he's currently inherited, Magath will need plenty of luck to engineer a repeat of the success he achieved in Wolfsburg.
Author: Jefferson Chase
Editor: Neil King