Schalke 04: 20 most expensive transfers in Schalke 04 history

3. Sebastian Rudy—$17.60m

What can you even say about Sebaastian Rudy without promptly wanting to beat your head against the wall? I mean, here’s a guy that, with Hoffenheim, was an everything midfield. He was physically strong, mobile with the ball, and always had 5-10 goal contributions every single season. His best year 2016/27 when he managed two goals and seven assists.

Then he goes to Bayern Munich, sniffing out the glory therein, and he only played 1500 minutes, but still managed a goal and four assists in that time. Still, he wanted out, Schalke went and bailed him out and he gave us nothing.

Nothing.

1500 minutes later, he’s loaned back to Hoffenheim where he’s managed a goal and three assists—a tally that, while small, would make him invaluable at Schalke, where goals are like gold nuggets.

What comes next? Well, we’ll probably sell Sebastian Rudy at under half of what we paid for him and he will go down as another failed big-money transfer. Speaking of which, No. 2 is next.