Schalke 04 and Twente – a very special relationship: Youri Mulder finds it “wonderful”

Schalke versus Twente – when the test match kicks off at 1:30 p.m. today in the Veltins Arena, two friendly clubs will meet.

2 mins reading time

2023-07-22 11:30:00

Because the Royal Blues have had a long-standing fan friendship with the “Tukkers”. At home games of the Dutch first division club, there are usually many Schalke fans in “De Grolsch Veste”, in the Veltins Arena there are often many fans of Twente Enschede to support Schalke.

“A few months ago at a game in the Eredivisie, someone told me that in FC Twente’s stadium German is sometimes spoken more than Dutch,” says Youri Mulder in an interview with schalke04.de.

For both clubs on the ball

Mulder is something like the personified protagonist of this deep bond between Schalke and Twente, which, however, had its origins before Mulder moved from Twente Enschede to Schalke in 1993.

Mulder has played for both clubs and was also an assistant coach at both clubs. Today, the 54-year-old, who won the Uefa Cup with Schalke in 1997, is a co-opted member of the Schalke supervisory board responsible for sporting issues.

The thing with the videocassette

Mulder has fond memories of the special circumstances of his move and confirms the rumor that a video cassette also played a role.

Because Schalke’s “negotiators” Rudi Assauer and coach Helmut Schulte apparently couldn’t do much with him, despite a strong season that Mulder had played for Twente, “I gave the manager and coach a video cassette before they said goodbye. With my best scenes from the past few years.”

Confused with de Boer?

Assauer then called later and almost made the deal perfect with the words: “Youri, you’re one for us.” To this day, however, Mulder is not quite sure whether Assauer and Schulte really looked closely at the video.

Because: “The quality of the recording wasn’t the best. The manager then said in one sentence that I wore the number 9 – but that was Ronald de Boer’s number. I usually had the 8 on my back. But I really scored a lot of goals, but so did Ronald. Schalke probably thought that all the goals on the videotape were scored by me.”

“I think it’s wonderful”

Anyway: Youri Mulder – it was a success story not only on a sporting level. Mulder was a crowd pleaser and has remained so to this day. He will also be in the stadium today. And also happy about the very special relationship between Schalke and Enscheder fans: “I think it’s wonderful that the fans of two clubs, and also from different countries, get along so well.