4. Trophies
Any time a club’s history stretches back over a century, you can bet that there’s a lot to brag about. Schalke remains one of the most underrated top clubs in the world because, in the modern game, they haven’t been able to keep pace, but as they make their way back to where they belong, take notice of how much they’ve done in the past.
For starters, they were the first team to do the Cup double in 1937. They’ve won the German Championship (the Bundesliga before it was called the Bundesliga) seven times, the DFB-Pokal Cup five times, and a slew of other trophies to add to that across Germany and Europe.
That puts them fourth all-time in the German top flight and tied for third all-time in the DFB-Pokal Cup, with their most recent triumph coming in 2011. If you add together German top-flight trophies and the DFB-Pokal, that puts them level with who else but Borussia Dortmund.
They don’t just have a cool story, they have successes to match any of the top clubs in Europe.
Next stop, No. 3.