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Shkodran Mustafi is now trying it at Schalke 04
Photo: John Walton / dpa
Shkodran Mustafi is 28 years old, which can be called the best football age.
He played in Italy, in Spain, in England, in each of the first leagues, oh yes, and he's still a soccer world champion.
You'd think that nothing better could happen to a club than signing such a player.
And what does he do?
He goes to Schalke 04, the desolate bottom of the table that the Bundesliga has had for years.
The "Hamburger Morgenpost" headlined: "Why does a world champion Schalke do himself?" But the question is completely wrong.
Schalke and Mustafi, that actually fits very well.
Two fighting for what may be their last chance.
In such a situation it is better to get together.
Mustafi can't get rid of the 2014 world champion, there are worse things.
For example what the international experienced afterwards.
Not only that the story still exists today that Germany was only able to win the title in Brazil because Mustafi injured himself in the round of 16 against Algeria.
Captain Philipp Lahm then had to return to Mustafi's position as full-back and only then was the defense stable in terms of world championship.
Scapegoat for failure
The years after the 2014 World Cup were rather worse, because Mustafi at Arsenal FC after initially good years became a kind of scapegoat for the failure of the Londoners.
Suddenly people remembered how much money the club had paid for Mustafi, namely a good 40 million euros, and every mistake the player made on the field was taken as proof that Mustafi was never worth the money .
And then mistakes actually happened several times, possibly also in human nature.
Gradually, Mustafi was sidelined at Arsenal, this season he only had 44 minutes of playing time, but even before that he was considered a candidate for transfer during transfer periods.
This winter, in which the Londoners have cleaned up their squad properly, surrendered Mesut Özil and Sead Kolašinac, the time was over for Mustafi too - and a surprisingly quick re-union with his defender colleague Kolašinac.
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At the height of his career: as world champion at the Brandenburg Gate
Photo: DPA
However, while the Bosnian Kolašinac has aroused faint hopes for Schalke, expectations are far lower for Mustafi.
Kolašinac's return was also sold as a rescue operation for an ex-Schalke, as a look in the mirror of better times at Royal Blue.
At Mustafi, most of the people don't talk about him, but rather about Ozan Kabak, the 20-year-old Turkish international who Schalke gave to Liverpool, not least because of financial hardship.
Mustafi was seen more or less as a gift in exchange for Kabak's departure, and not necessarily as a good trade.
The fact that Schalke trainer Christian Gross and Mustafi's consultancy SBE are linked was not exactly seen as proof that this transfer is a special coup.
At the end of the ride into the sunset?
Maybe that's exactly the chance that the 20-time national player has.
Nobody expects miracles from him, Schalke has already been written off for many, actually Mustafi can only win in such a situation.
Schalke and Mustafi, it's like two cowboys who have had their best days but still have one fight to fight.
Actually it is hopeless, but there are enough westerns that live from the fact that hopeless fights are won and the boys ride into the sunset together in the end.
That would certainly be a beautiful story, all the more as there is currently very little to suggest that it will come true.
Mustafi has two options, and both would be acceptable to him: Schalke are relegated as expected, but the player draws attention to himself through performance, through a certain leadership, through spirit.
Then he would suddenly be more interesting for other clubs again.
Or he is one of the outcasts that contributed to the Gelsenkirchen miracle happening.
Then he would have suddenly achieved hero status in the station.
It was a strange transfer period, this short, hectic phase in the corona winter 2021. Several clubs, probably also unsettled by the times, have relied on security, committed players with a certain experience, regardless of the fact that they did not have a large one in their old clubs Role played more.
It's not a particularly brave move, there is an air of desperation to it, but it still may be that it wasn't a wrong move.
Because the players still have something to prove to themselves.
And where better to do that than with clubs that are down?
Shkodran Mustafi has had to endure a lot of ridicule in England, it can also be that the same thing happens to him in Schalke.
Even if the club has actually passed its phase in which buckets of malice were poured over its head and it is now more in the period of compassion.
But in any case it is an opportunity to show whether you accept challenges as a professional.
A bigger challenge than Schalke in 2021 is hardly conceivable.
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