FC Schalke 04 won’t have to face Mark Uth this season
FC Schalke 04 have loaned out striker Mark Uth to his hometown club FC Köln for the remainder of the season, but they won’t have to face him next month due to a clause in the loan deal.
Mark Uth found it difficult to establish himself as a starter for FC Schalke 04 this season, as his poor form in 2018-2019 has continued in 2019-2020. Uth was one of the Bundesliga’s better forwards at TSG Hoffenheim, but he’s never showed his goal-scoring form since moving to Gelsenkirchen last season.
Schalke hope that a loan deal with hometown club FC Köln will help coax the best football out of Uth, who may have also been operating at less than 100-percent due to adductor issues. Uth’s adductor checked out, allowing him to be loaned to Köln at no cost to his new club.
But while Köln won’t have to pay a fee up-front for Uth’s services in their quest to remain in the first league, they won’t get to benefit from Uth’s presence when they face Schalke on Feb. 29.
According to SportBuzzer.de, multiple reports claim that there’s a clause in Uth’s loan deal with Köln preventing the 28-year-old from facing his parent club in their head-to-head matchup.
Many teams use this club in loan deals, referring to it as a “fear” clause. It’s become less commonplace among big clubs, as Real Madrid, for example, preferred to see how young stars Sergio Reguilon and Martin Odegaard would fare against them in league play.
But it says a lot about Schalke’s opinion on Uth’s overall quality that they “fear” having to face him, even though Köln are Bundesliga newcomers.
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If Uth can find his form for the Billy Goats, then Schalke will be in business at the striker position in 2020-2021 for the final year of the German international’s contract. And if Uth plays so well that he uplifts a Köln team that has several strikers surprisingly playing out of form this season, then there’s also a clause in the loan deal stating that Schalke will get a fee back their way, per a report from BILD. This fee is only if Uth helps his new club avoid relegation.