Matthias Tillmann assumes role of CEO

In October 2023, the club’s supervisory board announced that Matthias Tillmann would assume the role of CEO from 1st January 2024. The 40-year-old will have the overall strategic responsibility within the board going forwards. “I’m happy that I can finally get started,” said Tillmann. He has already held talks several times over the past few weeks and months in an effort to familiarise himself with Schalke 04, gain an understanding of the most important aspects of the club’s structure and the most crucial tasks, hear about the day-to-day operations and plan preliminary courses of action.

He was focused first and foremost on the sporting structure and he will also be responsible for this area of the club from now on. After Peter Knäbel announced that he would not be extending his contract with Schalke in November, Tillmann, Christina Rühl-Hamers – S04’s board member for finance – and the supervisory board decided that a new board member for sport would not be necessary going forward. Schalke and Knäbel came to the agreement that the 57-year-old would leave his post before the expiration of his contract, as the structural change will be implemented in January. Knäbel will remain active in an advisory capacity until the end of the season.

“In the past few weeks, we’ve conducted a thorough sporting analysis, initially with a focus on the optimal structure and irrespective of personnel. One of our main findings was that the CEO should be close to the team, the coach and the rest of the staff in order to get a good feeling for the makeup, sense of togetherness and dynamics within the senior team. We will only be in a position to steer our development in the right direction and avoid negative trends if we remain as close as we can to our primary interest, football,” explained Tillmann and emphasised, “We’re not cutting any sporting positions – on the contrary, we’re strengthening our department of directors, which will consist of a sporting director and a technical director in the future. They’ll handle the day-to-day sporting operations and the strategic development of Schalke’s football. My role will be to develop the overall strategy with both directors and manage the implementation of ideas.”

Over the coming days, the club will announce who will fill these positions. “The selection of candidates was the second part of the process. I’ll say that we have full faith in the structure and the personnel. As soon as we’ve taken care of all the regulatory processes, we’ll reveal our overall direction,” promised Tillmann.

In the next few days, Tillmann will get to know his team better and start to make his mark on the future of the club, while head coach Karel Geraerts and the squad hold their winter training camp in Portugal. The new CEO will travel to meet up with the players and coaching staff on 5th January in order to speak about the current sporting situation in person and form his own opinion of the conditions there.

Tillmann is primarily focused on two other things alongside sport: the income structure with an emphasis on profitability and making sure that whole club is working together. “I want to pool everyone at the club’s strengths together. The aim is to work together towards success for Schalke 04. I will ensure that we have a clear direction and lead the way in this regard.”