Historical giants of Bundesliga are back!

Historical giants of Bundesliga are back!

Schalke have returned to the Bundesliga ahead of schedule after a year of absence! Werder and Hamburger are very close to this.

The thirty-third round of the 2.Bundesliga actually resolved the issues regarding the promotion. The first to return were Schalke, the seven-time German champions. But if the Miners took the last title back in 1958, then they became second in the standings quite recently - in 2018. Since then, the men from Gelsenkirchen begфn to regress rapidly, leading to relegation in the 2020/21 campaign. Back then Schalke got only three victories and earned a humiliating 16 points.

However, the team from Gelsenkirchen did not get bogged down in the swamp of the 2.Bundesliga, like other ex-giants of German football - Nurnburg, Hamburger, Kaiserslautern... For almost the entire year, the Royal Blues were in the group of leaders, and seven victories in the last ten meetings finally decided the issue of promotion. The promotion took shape in spectacular style, with a strong-willed 3-2 victory over St. Pauli.

As befits many German clubs, Schalke preach spectacular attacking football. At the moment, the representatives of the Ruhr region have scored 70 goals (the most in the Bundesliga). Twenty-nine of them are on the account of Simon Terodde. He brilliantly confirmed his reputation as a goalscorer. In the 2015/16 season, the 34-year-old veteran scored 25 goals in Bochum, a year later the same number in Stuttgart. Three years later, Terodde's 29 accurate shots helped him return to the elite in Cologne, and in the previous campaign he became a leader at Hamburg. Another iconic player of today's Schalke is Marius Bulter, a 29-year-old attacking football player. For the whole year, he scored ten goals and ten assists. The indicator is more than worthy.

Schalke is headed by an experienced specialist Mike Buskens, a former football player of the Gelsenkirchen club in the 90s. He only joined the team two months ago, replacing the sacked Dimitrios Grammosis. It was this decision of the leadership of the Miners that became decisive. The victorious spurt of the Veltins Arena team is the merit of the 54-year-old Buskens.

Who else will join the elite of German football? Werder Bremen are now second with 60 points. Three points behind them are Hamburger and Darmstadt 98. For a direct promotion, it is enough for the Bremen not to lose at home to Regensburg, which have lost any motivation. On the same tour, Hamburger will go to visit the Hansa, while Darmstadt 98 will host Paderborn.

We think that the appearance of Schalke in the Bundesliga will significantly strengthen German football. First of all, in terms of image. The return of the Ruhr Derby will also cause huge audience interest. Like it or not, but the fans of Borussia Dortmund missed them.

Tournament prospects of Shakhtar are vague. They do not have serious squad potential, and the likely sale of Terodde will further weaken the team. We vthink that the first season after the return, Schalke will end in the 11th-15th place. And then it can follow the path of Stuttgart - a once formidable team that is going through a not the best period in history. That is, regularly drop out and come back.

In the Bundesliga standings, Schalke are seventh, Werder Bremen are third and Hamburger are fourth. It's always good when historical giants return to their rightful positions. But do they correspond to the level of the elite division? Only time will tell.