Schalke’s internal conflict effecting their pursuit of a sporting director | OneFootball

Schalke’s off-the-field struggles are well documented, whether that be the coaching situation or financially. Now, an internal conflict is affecting their ability to hire a sporting director, reports Bild.

Since the firing of Marc Wilmots earlier this season as sporting director, Youri Mulder has stepped up into what was expected to be an interim role. Schalke have tried to hire a permanent solution but the current hierarchy are making this difficult.

Several top candidates have rejected the role as they do not want to work under CEO Matthias Tillmann, while squad planner Ben Manga continues to hold a lot of power.

Sporting directors to have rejected a move to Schalke are Jonas Boldt (formerly of Hamburg), Jörg Schmadtke (ex-Liverpool and Wolfsburg) and Fredi Bobic (most recently Hertha Berlin and ex-Eintracht Frankfurt), the latter even gave his reasoning to turning down the role to Sky:

This leaves the current options as Dietmar Beiersdorf (Ingolstadt), Oliver Kreuzer (ex-Karlsruhe) and Samir Arabi (previously Arminia Bielefeld).

It doesn’t stop there. Both Bild and Sky Germany report that Schalke’s head coach Kees van Wonderen offered to leave the club back in December. The Dutch coach was under the belief that he was unable to make a difference in the team and every was prepared for him to leave. Schalke even had van Wonderen’s replacement lined up with Friedheim Funkel prepared to come in.

However, the team turned their performances around and since then have only lost twice, to promotion chasing 1.FC Köln and Magdeburg.

GGFN | Jack Meenan