“I am ready to help the team again,” says Benjamin Stambouli

“I feel 100% now and I am ready to help the team again,” said Stambouli, who can’t wait to play his first competitive game of the season. The defensive midfielder explained that it was extremely difficult to watch his team lose their first five games of the season. “You sit in the stadium and would want to jump onto the pitch,” he said as he gave an insight as to how it feels to be a player watching from the stands. During his time on the sidelines Stambouli tried to help his teammates from the side. “I spoke a lot with the boys and gave them tips on things which I had noticed in the games,” said the Frenchman.

Stambouli did not only support his team mates through the difficult period but also got the fans to support them. “I got a lot of messages from the fans and it was incredible. It was very important for me,” said Stambouli. He is now very happy to be back training with his teammates again. “It is a wonderful feeling to be on the pitch with friends again. The people here at Schalke are like a second family to me,” said Stambouli with a smile on his face.

He does not think about the unlucky situation between him and Breel Embolo when he got injured. “Those things happen,” said Stambouli. He thanked the medical team a lot for their top work. He worked with Bastian Oczipka and Steven Skrzybski very intensively to get back to match fitness. “We were a super rehab team, we motivated each other and we are good mates,” raved Stambouli.

Winning the second ball is important

Against Bremen (20/10/18, 18:30 CEST), Schalke will want to make it three consecutive games in a row. “Recently we have been playing well. It is very important to win the decisive tackles and we have done so in past games,” said Stambouli. “If you win the tackles, you can bring your technical quality to the pitch. Tackling in part of the Schalke DNA and we have found that strength again.”

Now Stambouli is looking forward to his first competitive appearance of the season. „I feel good with the ball. When the coach says I’m playing, I’m ready,“ he said. „When I run on to the pitch, I’ll one hundred percent have goosebumps, because I’ve been working for a long time for this moment.“