"Personal reasons": Sports director Schröder leaves FC Schalke 04 immediately

Rouven Schröder is no longer the sporting director of Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04. The 47-year-old surprisingly leaves the bottom of the table with immediate effect. There are “personal reasons,” the club said.

FC Schalke 04 and Rouven Schröder are going their separate ways with immediate effect. As the bottom of the table in the Bundesliga announced, the sports director asked for the early exit from his contract for personal reasons. “The decision to leave Schalke 04 was anything but easy for me. We have experienced 18 extremely intense months together. I wish the employees and fans of FC Schalke 04 all the best for the future and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we stay in the league on at the end of the season,” Schröder commented on the surprising decision. Sport director Peter Knäbel and his team will take over his duties until further notice.

The 47-year-old Schröder took up the position of sports director for the 2021/22 season at the Revier club, which had been relegated from the Bundesliga, and contributed to the return of the traditional club to the football upper house with a clever transfer policy. “Rouven has rendered services to the club, the importance of which will perhaps only be fully assessed and appreciated by the public in a few years. I will say it very clearly: without the work of Rouven Schröder, FC Schalke 04 would no longer be in its usual form For that he deserves the thanks of all Schalke”, Knäbel was quoted as saying in the club’s announcement.

The CEO Bernd Schröder made a similar statement. “No one seriously believed that Schalke 04 would be able to return to the Bundesliga after just a year. This unique success story under extremely challenging financial circumstances will last forever. We would have liked to have continued on the path we had taken with Rouven, but we still fulfilled his personal wish.”

After the separation from Frank Kramer, Schalke are currently looking for a new head coach. Most recently, Matthias Kreutzer looked after the team in the 1: 2 at Hertha BSC as interim coach.