Schalke: Amine Harit transfer interest is kind of fun now

Amine Harit is garnering interest from the top teams again, but contrary to the usual, this interest actually feels good for Schalke.

Generally speaking, when a top team is interested in a Schalke player, it doesn’t feel good. For too many years now, our players have been feeding top clubs and scattering around the world of the Champions League, where Die Knappen is struggling to get back to.

Thinking of Leon Goretzka and Julian Draxler and Alexander Nubel and Leroy Sane and the list goes on and on. Big clubs come and we can’t compete with them. Players are either sold for cheap or walk for free.

So hearing that Barcelona is yet again interested in Amine Harit might cause a knee-jerk reaction of doom and gloom. How can we keep him?

But then we have to remember that things are different with Amine Harit. Thanks to his dedication and service to the club, he signed a new deal last year, extending his stay for the long-term and thus eliminating all possibility of an early exit.

Or rather, an early exit without the club’s say-so.

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That’s the important thing here—Schalke is in control. Complete control. Which has so rarely been the case in similar situations in the past. Now, with Barcelona barking, Schalke can decide if they want to play ball or not.

And that feels kind of good, doesn’t it? Harit could still be sold, even though the Royal Blues have shown no interest in selling him. But the different now is that the price for Harit would be way up there, probably around the region that it should be. He’s young, he’s damn talented, and his contract isn’t up until 2024.

While his market valuation is only plugging along at around £25m, there is no pressure to accept anything in that ballpark and aim for higher. We know what Harit brings the club and if we can’t get a financial return to further the club’s goals, there’s absolutely no hurry and no pressure to rush a sale.

Besides, Harit wants to be here. He’s one of those budding superstars that would normally leave the club around this time, but has instead determined to stay.

By that standard, what’s the point of selling him at all when we can keep our very own superstar for the first time in ages? Harit is a Schalke man, we should be building around him, not planning to sell.