Shortly after the departure of sports director Rouven Schröder, FC Schalke 04 found a new coach. According to media reports, Thomas Reis will succeed Frank Kramer. The Royal Blues pay a transfer fee for their new coach, but Reis also digs into his pocket.
According to reports from Sky and the “Sportbuzzer” portal, Thomas Reis will be the new coach of FC Schalke 04. The bottom of the table in the Bundesliga agreed with Reis’ previous club, VfL Bochum, on the payment of a transfer fee. FC Schalke 04 did not confirm the report in the evening at the request of the German Press Agency. In Bochum, Reis still had a contract that was valid until the end of the season. The 49-year-old was on leave in September after a 3-1 draw at Schalke. He succeeds Frank Kramer.
In the afternoon, Schalke’s sports director Rouven Schröder surprisingly announced his resignation. The 47-year-old gave personal reasons for the early exit from his contract. “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 succeed at the end of the season,” commented Schröder. Sport director Peter Knäbel and his team will take over his duties until further notice.
Schröder’s search for his second head coach after Kramer’s mistake unexpectedly dragged on. Originally, the sports director wanted to hire a new head coach last week, but he got rejections from Bruno Labbadia and the Austrian Christian Ilzer. Ex-Bochum Reis, with whom Schalke had spoken last summer, moved up the list of candidates again. But VfL did not release him without further ado.
According to information from Sky, Schalke is now paying a transfer fee of around 300,000 euros, including any bonuses, to Bochum for Reis’ services. The new coach should even pay a larger part of his fee out of his own pocket. In the afternoon, after Schröder had informed the team of his decision, interim coach Matthias Kreutzer led the training again. Now Reis will take over the bottom of the table. He is to be officially presented on Thursday morning.
In the 2021/22 season, Schröder took up the position of sports director at the Revier club and contributed to the return of the traditional club to the Bundesliga with a clever and cost-effective transfer policy. But after the recent sporting descent with six competitive defeats in a row, which cost Kramer his job, the native of Arnsberg also came under increasing pressure.
