Arena AufSchalke, currently known as Veltins-Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium with a retractable roof and slide-out pitch in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It open
Exterior of the Veltins-Arena
The players' tunnel (August 2011)
An exterior view of the slide-out pitch beneath the southern wing
Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04, and abbreviated as S04, is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It i
Arena AufSchalke
…with a retractable roof and slide-out pitch in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001 as the new home ground of FC Schalke 04. The stadium has a capacity of 62,271 for league matches and 54,740 for international matches. Its naming rights were sold to the German brewery Veltins…
1900s typical mining structure in the Ruhr, source of the Schalke nickname Die Knappen – from an old German word for "miners"– because the team drew so many of its players and supporters from the coalmine workers of Gelsenkirchen.
FC Schalke 04 supporters in 1941 (Score table says "Kriegsmeistershaft" - "War championship")
Commonly regarded as the greatest S04 player of all time alongside Fritz Szepan, Ernst Kuzorra is also commonly regarded as one of the greatest German forwards and led S04 to become the dominant team in German football winning six German championships and one DFB-Pokal from 1934 to 1942. Ernst Kuzorra was one of the main axes of what became known as the "Schalker Kreisel; a system that used quick and short passing", to confuse and overwhelm the opponent.
Fans displaying their colours at the Veltins-Arena