Schalke: Amine Harit far more underrated than overrated

Amine Harit is the centerpiece of Schalke, yet somehow he continues to fly under the radar, even with interest from Barcelona.

it’s understandable how players are underrated on Schalke. You look at guys like Matija Nastasic and Bastian Oczipka and they are as underrated as it gets. No one rates them highly except those that have seen how effective they are. Strangely enough, we may have to include Amine Harit in that company as well.

It didn’t really hit me until I responded to a Bundesliga twitter question about the most underrated player in Germany. I posited that Amine Harit was underrated and just about everyone (mostly Dortmund fans) laughed and said he was overrated.

This is just bizarre to me, how anyone could see Amine Harit as overrated, and the fact that he is considered as such makes me think that the opposite is more true than ever.

 Amine Harit is not overrated for Schalke 04

First and foremost, his six goals and four assists may not seem game-changing, but you also have to consider how inconsistent Schalke’s attack has been lately. Harit has been one of the few consistencies, and that’s hard to do with a fluctuating cast around you.

He’s also only 22-years-old. He’s coming off a season that was traumatizing for off-the-pitch reasons and this year was meant to be his big breakout year. Unsurprisingly, it has been. So much so that Barcelona are interested.

The numbers back him up—did you know that Harit is a top 5 dribbler in Germany? He completes just as many as Jadon Sancho while getting fouled three times more often. He’s got just one assist less than Kai Havertz and as many goals. (And more dribbles completed, by the way).

These are some of the most hyped guys in the world, Sancho and Havertz. And for just cause, don’t get me wrong. But when Harit is putting up similar numbers and gets slated as overrated, I have to ask questions.

Sure Harit doesn’t have nearly 30 goal contributions like Sancho, but as I said, Sancho is playing on an offensive juggernaut that has scored twice as many goals as Schalke has. Havertz is a more apt comparison, as he plays on a similar outfit at Leverkusen, yet even they have 12 more goals than the Royal Blues.

Sancho and Havertz would both probably fetch around £100m in the transfer market, while Harit is somehow only valued at around £20m. So don’t give me this overrated nonsense. Not when the numbers so clearly state the opposite.

Harit makes the most of what he has and then some. Once this attack starts filling in around him, his numbers will balloon just like Sancho’s has.