Welcome Back! FC Schalke Earn Promotion Back to the Bundesliga

Throughout the course of the season, I’ve been plagued by the nagging feeling that something is missing. Something blue.

Then, I was scrolling through ESPN+ yesterday, and I stumbled across a match between St. Pauli and none other than FC Schalke, Borussia Dortmund’s arch-rivals. They seemed to be celebrating something...

Schalke’s time down in the 2. Bundesliga has been short-lived. With their win against FC St. Pauli yesterday, Schalke guaranteed promotion back to the Bundesliga. There will be two Revierderby matches next season, and I personally am looking forward to watching BVB (hopefully) kick the crap out of Schalke home and away next season.

The Revierderby is consistently ranked as the biggest local rivalry in German Football, and for good reason. Some of the most biggest matches in Bundesliga history, for better or worse, have been Revierderbies. The history between these two clubs goes back almost a century, and involves multiple swings in the balance of power between the two clubs from North-Rhine Westphalia. While Borussia Dortmund are clearly the current standard bearer of the region, it wasn’t too long ago that Schalke were consistently finishing above BVB in the table, a feat they achieved as recently as 2018. Schalke’s collapse to the 2. Bundesliga is much more of an anomaly than a return to an historical norm.

Even if you hate Schalke, you’ve got to admit that this is good for the Bundesliga, and frankly good for Borussia Dortmund too. Beating Schalke is often the type of galvanizing win to revitalize a season, and it’s something that the squad could have used at various points this season. Let’s hope that Die Schwarzgelben welcome them back with another 4-0 hiding next fall.