Schalke 04 separates from coach Kees van Wonderen at the end of the season

After the critical farewell statements by Kees van Wonderen, FC Schalke 04 separates from its coach at the end of the season. The club announced four days after the 2: 2 (1: 2) in the home game against Hamburger SV that the cooperation, which was actually dated by 2026, ended prematurely at the end of June.

Van Wonderen had previously indicated the end of his term in the second division soccer team and criticized the club managers. To do this, he had initially only been tuned in an official statement-now those responsible for the future sports director Frank Baumann were moving the consequences. Co-coach Robert Molenaar also has to go in summer. However, the decision was justified with the realignment on the coaching position.

“Since the unofficial start of Frank Baumann two weeks ago, we have intensively talked about which profile a chief coach should bring on Schalke. We have also dealt with the question of whether the current constellation meets these requirements in the long term,” said sports director Youri Mulder: “It was also for me personally-not a simple decision, but we all arrived with Kees van Wonderen after the season.”

The club now wants to start the search for a successor. The press release says “so far no discussions with potential candidates” have been held. Most recently, several coaching candidates were traded in the media, including Markus Beginning, which was only shot at 1. FC Kaiserslautern. There are good contacts to the former Schalke player Raúl, who currently coaches the second team of Real Madrid.

Van Wonderen had outnumbered vertebrae immediately after the brilliantly won point win against HSV with surprisingly honest statements. It was clear to him “that I am no longer here after this season. All the signals are there. If we were on the same way, you would exchange ideas better.”

When asked whether his statements were meant by the board of directors Matthias Tillmann, the 56-year-old replied: “For example.” After the embarrassing 0: 2 in the previous week against the bottom of the table Jahn Regensburg, he expected more backing, “instead you don’t hear anything and it says behind the scenes that there are doubts.” That is “disappointing”. He could deal with criticism, “but if you doubt, you’d better take someone else”.

Van Wonderen had only started his coaching position at Schalke in early October. He has almost achieved the minimum goal of relegation, but a playful development could only be seen in a few games. The unsuccessful squad planning is also held responsible for this in the environment.

Van Wonderen had strengthened the 2-2 against HSV. The team appeared after the early red cards for captain Kenan Karaman (3rd minute) team closed and scored a point thanks to the equalizer from striker Moussa Sylla (81st).

Note: This post has been updated.