FC Schalke 04 faces crucial weeks in the Bundesliga relegation battle. And although mostly tough opponents are waiting in the last few games: ex-S04 defender Shkodran Mustafi still believes in the miners.
“Schalke is a club that belongs in the first division,” said the 31-year-old in an interview with “Sky”. “If the fans continue to support their team like this, I can imagine that they can still score a few points and stay up in the league despite the difficult remaining program,” said the 2014 world champion.
However, the central defender admitted that he no longer has the hottest connection to the Royal Blues. That’s why he doesn’t trust himself to make a concrete forecast. “You’ve played for clubs, but you don’t know what’s going on internally,” the defender clarified.
From the outside, however, he sees a Schalke team “that has the support of the fans,” Mustafi emphasized.
Mustafi himself was relegated with FC Schalke 04
Despite some good games in the second half of the season, FC Schalke 04 are currently still in a relegation zone with five games to go. The seventeenth (24 points) currently only one point separates VfB Stuttgart on the relegation rank. The gap to VfL Bochum in 15th place is three points.
Although anything is still possible with 15 outstanding points, the Royal Blues have the most difficult remaining program in the basement. The home game against Werder Bremen on Saturday will be followed by games against Mainz, FC Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig. Reaching 16th place would be a small success for the miners.
Mustafi once experienced first-hand what a relegation battle feels like at Schalke. In the turbulent 2020/21 season, he was brought in as a short-term reinforcement in winter, but was unable to prevent going into the second division at the end of the season. After that, they parted ways after just five months.
