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Lots of new faces as S04 begin pre-season training
FC Schalke 04 kicked off preparations for the 2024/2025 season in the Gelsenkirchen sun on Wednesday morning (26/6).
There were lots of new faces on the training ground: eight new signings Ron-Thorben Hoffmann, Anton Donkor, Adrian Gantenbein, Martin Wasinski, Janik Bachmann, Aris Bayindir, Amin Younes and Peter Remmert were all involved, while five academy players (Luca Podlech, Taylan Bulut, Vitalie Becker, Niklas Barthel and Max Grüger) also trained. The trio of Justin Heekeren, Mehmet Can Aydin and Sebastian Polter were also back from their respective loan moves.
The coaching team also included a few new faces. New goalkeeping coach Stephan Loboué and assistant coach Sidney Sam, who has returned to the club after spending time with S04 in his player career, were also involved in the session. Meanwhile, Moussa Sylla, Ibrahima Cissé and Lino Tempelmann were all missing from training. New signing Sylla has been given some time off after recently being on international duty and he will start training on Monday (1/7). Cissé is currently preparing for the Olympics with Mali U23s, while Tempelmann is working individually at the moment.
Goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann was also not involved in the first session of the 2024/25 season. “In good and fair discussions, the club, player and agent have agreed that Ralf will train with the U23s until further notice. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for these discussions and we’ll keep trying to find a solution that works for everyone,” explained Marc Wilmots and Ben Manga.
Karel Geraerts and his new-look squad were out on the pitch at 10:00. After a few words to the group, the players completed a few warm-up drills. Footballs were introduced to the session after around 45 minutes, with the team doing some passing drills and then a game on half a pitch. The two-hour session ended with a game with three goals used and then another team-talk.
Due to the EURO 2024 game between Georgia and Portugal at the Arena on Wednesday night (26/6), the S04 fans were forced to watch training live on YouTube. They can, however, be at training tomorrow morning (27/6) at 10:30 CEST.
