Last Updated: June 2026
Schalke 04: Germany’s Greatest Football Disaster
In 2020-21, Schalke 04 went 30 Bundesliga games without a win — a drought lasting 358 days, the longest by calendar duration in the competition’s history. They lost 8-0 on the opening day of the season. They cycled through five managers, a Bundesliga record. They were relegated for the first time in 30 years with 16 points and 3 wins from 34 games, having been in the Champions League knockout stages just two seasons earlier. This is the story of how one of Germany’s greatest clubs destroyed itself from the inside out — and what happened in the years that followed.
Key Facts
Quick context before you watch:
- Schalke’s 30-game winless run lasted 358 days — the longest by calendar duration in Bundesliga history. Tasmania Berlin’s record of 31 games by match count was not broken.
- Opening Match: 8-0 at Bayern Munich on 18 September 2020. The heaviest defeat of any Schalke season in the Bundesliga era.
- Five Managers in One Season: David Wagner, Manuel Baum, Huub Stevens, Christian Gross, and Dimitrios Grammozis — a Bundesliga record.
- Final Record: 3 wins, 7 draws, 24 defeats, 16 points. 25 goals scored (fewest in the Bundesliga that season), 86 conceded (most).
- Schalke additionally hold the Bundesliga record for most consecutive away games without a win: 38, spanning 2019-20 to 2022-23.
- Schalke won promotion back to the Bundesliga on 2 May 2026, winning the 2. Bundesliga title under coach Miron Muslic.
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The Worst Bundesliga Teams of All Time
The Fall and Rise and Fall of Die Knappen
How the Rot Set In: The Transfer Haemorrhage and the Board Failures
The seeds of Schalke’s 2021 relegation were sown years before the season began. Between 2016 and 2019, Sporting Director Christian Heidel oversaw the departure of four key players without a single transfer fee received. Centre-back Joel Matip went to Liverpool. Left-back Sead Kolasinac — a Bundesliga Team of the Season selection — went to Arsenal. Midfielder Max Meyer left for Crystal Palace after criticising Heidel publicly. Then Leon Goretzka, the best player at the club, walked to Bayern Munich for nothing. All four were replaced with expensive, lower-quality players who underperformed. Schalke finished second in the Bundesliga in 2017-18. By the end of 2018-19, they had dropped to 14th, five points above the relegation places, and been knocked out of the Champions League 10-2 on aggregate by Manchester City. Heidel resigned in February 2019.
Then the money problems arrived. Chairman Clemens Tonnies, the billionaire meat magnate who had personally negotiated Schalke’s Gazprom sponsorship deal with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, made racist remarks at a public event in August 2019 and took a three-month leave. In June 2020, a COVID outbreak at his slaughterhouse infected 1,400 workers and triggered a regional lockdown in North Rhine-Westphalia. Fan protests followed. Tonnies resigned — removing the club’s main benefactor at the worst possible moment. The COVID pandemic then cut Bundesliga broadcasting revenue by around 31% and eliminated matchday income entirely, with each affected home game costing the club approximately 2 million euros. Schalke entered the 2020-21 season with approximately 200 million euros of debt and a manager, David Wagner, who had not won a Bundesliga game in sixteen attempts.
The Season That Broke Everything
The 2020-21 season began on 18 September 2020 at the Allianz Arena. Bayern Munich, freshly crowned Champions League winners, beat Schalke 8-0. Leroy Sane marked his Bayern debut with a goal against his former club. It set the tone for everything that followed. Wagner was sacked five days later after a home defeat to Werder Bremen, having extended the winless run to 18 games. Manuel Baum replaced him, steadied things briefly, then watched the dressing room disintegrate. In November, two senior players — Amin Harit and Nabil Bentaleb — were banished from the squad following a confrontation with Baum during a 3-0 home defeat to Wolfsburg. Baum lost his job in December. Club legend Huub Stevens returned for nine days over Christmas — two defeats — before handing over to Christian Gross on 27 December 2020.
Gross was the fourth manager of the season at a club that had not won a Bundesliga game since 17 January 2020. His most memorable act in the public eye had been 23 years earlier: arriving late to his Tottenham Hotspur unveiling, holding up a London Underground travel card, and declaring “I want this to become my ticket to the dreams.” The appointment said everything about the options available to a club with 200 million euros of debt. Under Gross, the winless run reached 30 games — a 3-0 defeat to Hertha Berlin on 2 January 2021, 358 days after Schalke’s last victory. Tasmania Berlin’s record of 31 consecutive winless games, from their only Bundesliga season in 1965-66, remained intact by a single game. Tasmania supporters had travelled to the Olympiastadion specifically to cheer Schalke on, terrified their record would be broken. Schalke duly lost.
On 9 January 2021, 19-year-old American Matthew Hoppe scored a hat-trick against Hoffenheim to give Schalke a 4-0 win — the first American to score a Bundesliga hat-trick — and end the run at 30 games. The joy did not last. A new winless run began immediately. Gross was sacked on 2 March. Dimitrios Grammozis, the fifth manager of the season — a Bundesliga record in itself — oversaw the final stretch. Relegation was confirmed on 20 April 2021 with a 1-0 defeat at Arminia Bielefeld. When the team bus returned to the Veltins-Arena, hundreds of supporters were waiting. Players were hit by eggs and, according to one anonymous squad member speaking to Sport1, kicks and punches. “It was fear, pure fear,” he said.
Relegation, the Gazprom Collapse, and the Road Back
Schalke came straight back up. Caretaker Mike Buskens took over mid-season in 2021-22, won eight of the final nine games, and guided them to the 2. Bundesliga title and promotion. But the financial problems that had caused the collapse had not been resolved, and in February 2022 they were compounded by something no one could have anticipated: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Schalke’s headline shirt sponsor was Gazprom, the Russian state energy giant. The German government imposed sanctions on Russian state companies, and Schalke had no choice but to cancel the contract immediately — losing their main commercial income on top of a debt burden already approaching 200 million euros. The 2022-23 Bundesliga season ended in a second relegation, finishing bottom with 31 points. Two further seasons followed in the second division, finishing 10th then 14th — the latter close enough to a third relegation to threaten the club’s very existence in its current form.
The turnaround came in 2025-26. Under new head coach Miron Muslic, appointed in the summer of 2025, Schalke transformed their results and mentality. On 2 May 2026, captain Kenan Karaman’s 13th-minute strike gave them a 1-0 home win over Fortuna Dusseldorf, clinching the 2. Bundesliga title and promotion back to the Bundesliga. After five years of financial crisis, managerial chaos, and two relegations, Die Knappen are heading back to the top flight. Whether the structural problems that caused the original collapse have genuinely been addressed remains the question that will define the next chapter.
READ MORE: The Worst Ever Bundesliga Team — Deep Dive →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Worst Bundesliga Team
What is the Schalke 04 Bundesliga disaster documentary about?
The Schalke 04 Bundesliga disaster documentary from The Football Documentary Channel covers the collapse of one of Germany’s biggest clubs across the 2020-21 season and the years leading up to it. It documents how Schalke went from Champions League contenders to Bundesliga relegation in two seasons, using five managers and recording a 30-game winless run lasting 358 days. The documentary is free to watch at youtube.com/@footballdocumentaries.
Is the Schalke disaster documentary free to watch?
The Schalke documentary from The Football Documentary Channel is free to watch on YouTube at youtube.com/@footballdocumentaries. All videos on the channel are free, including companion documentaries on the worst Premier League teams, the worst Ligue 1 seasons, and the worst Serie A teams in history.
How did Schalke go from the Champions League to relegation so quickly?
Schalke were in the Champions League round of 16 in 2018-19 and relegated from the Bundesliga in 2020-21 — a collapse spanning roughly two seasons. The core causes were the free-transfer departure of four key players under Sporting Director Christian Heidel between 2016 and 2019, the financial and reputational damage caused by chairman Clemens Tonnies (who made racist remarks in 2019 and whose slaughterhouse triggered a COVID lockdown in 2020), and the COVID-19 pandemic, which cut Bundesliga broadcasting revenue by approximately 31% and eliminated matchday income at the worst possible time for a club already carrying approximately 200 million euros of debt.
What happened on the opening day of Schalke’s 2020-21 season?
Schalke lost 8-0 to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on 18 September 2020, the opening day of the 2020-21 Bundesliga season. Bayern were the reigning Bundesliga champions and freshly crowned Champions League winners. Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick. Leroy Sane marked his return to Germany — and his Bayern debut — with a goal against Schalke, his former club. The result, and the manner of it, captured the scale of the gap that had opened between where Schalke were and where they needed to be.
How did Schalke’s 30-game winless run end?
Schalke’s 30-game Bundesliga winless run ended on 9 January 2021 with a 4-0 home win over Hoffenheim. Nineteen-year-old American Matthew Hoppe scored a hat-trick — the first American to score a Bundesliga hat-trick — with all three goals assisted by Amin Harit, who also scored the fourth. The win came 358 days after Schalke’s previous Bundesliga victory, a 2-0 home win over Borussia Monchengladbach on 17 January 2020. Tasmania Berlin’s record of 31 consecutive winless Bundesliga games, set in 1965-66, was not broken.
Who was Huub Stevens and why did he return to Schalke in 2020?
Huub Stevens is a Dutch manager who guided Schalke to the UEFA Cup in 1997 and was voted the club’s manager of the century by supporters. He returned for his fourth stint as Schalke manager in December 2020, at the age of 67, to serve as an emergency caretaker following the sacking of Manuel Baum. His tenure lasted nine days — 18 to 27 December 2020 — during which he oversaw two defeats. He was replaced by Christian Gross on 27 December 2020.
Why did Schalke cancel their Gazprom sponsorship?
Schalke cancelled their headline sponsorship contract with Gazprom, the Russian state energy company, on 28 February 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The German government imposed sanctions on Russian state companies, leaving Schalke with no alternative. The deal had originally been negotiated by former chairman Clemens Tonnies directly with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin and was one of the most valuable sponsorships in the Bundesliga. Its cancellation removed Schalke’s main commercial income at a time when the club was already carrying approximately 200 million euros of debt, contributing to a second relegation at the end of 2022-23.
What is Tasmania Berlin’s connection to Schalke?
Tasmania 1900 Berlin hold the Bundesliga record for most consecutive games without a win — 31, set during their sole top-flight season in 1965-66. The club has built its modern identity around this record, marketing itself globally as the worst Bundesliga club of all time. As Schalke’s winless run approached 30 games in early 2021, Tasmania chairman Almir Numic launched a media campaign to protect the record, and Tasmania supporters travelled to Hertha Berlin’s ground to cheer for Schalke, hoping Die Knappen would win and stop their run at 30. Schalke lost that game, then ended the drought the following week against Hoffenheim. Tasmania’s record survived.
Did Schalke bounce back after their 2021 relegation?
Schalke won immediate promotion back to the Bundesliga, with caretaker Mike Buskens guiding them to the 2. Bundesliga title in 2021-22. However, they were relegated again at the end of 2022-23, finishing bottom of the Bundesliga with 31 points. They also lost their main shirt sponsor, Gazprom, in February 2022. After two further seasons in the 2. Bundesliga, they won the title again in 2025-26 under coach Miron Muslic, clinching promotion on 2 May 2026 with a 1-0 home win over Fortuna Dusseldorf.
What records did Schalke set or approach in their worst season?
In 2020-21, Schalke set the Bundesliga record for most managers in a single season (five) and came within one game of equalling Tasmania Berlin’s all-time record of 31 consecutive games without a win, reaching 30. Their winless run of 358 days is the longest by calendar duration in Bundesliga history. They conceded 86 goals — the most in the division that season — and scored just 25 — the fewest. Schalke also hold the separate Bundesliga record for most consecutive away games without a win: 38, spanning the 2019-20 to 2022-23 seasons.
How does the Schalke documentary compare to the Premier League disasters documentary?
Both documentaries are part of The Football Documentary Channel’s Football Disasters series. The Premier League disasters documentary covers Derby County’s 11-point record season in 2007-08 and Southampton’s 30 defeats in 2024-25. The Schalke documentary covers a single club’s collapse — from Champions League contender to Bundesliga relegation — and the structural failures that caused it. Both are free at youtube.com/@footballdocumentaries. The Schalke story is arguably more complex because it spans several seasons of board failures rather than a single disastrous campaign.
Where can I watch the Schalke documentary for free?
The Schalke documentary is free to watch on YouTube at youtube.com/@footballdocumentaries. The Football Documentary Channel covers football history for a serious audience — rivalries, mavericks, and disasters from across European football. No subscription is required.
The Worst Ever Bundesliga Team
For the full story on Schalke’s disastrous relegation – and all important FAQs – read the companion deep dive:
READ MORE: The Worst Ever Bundesliga Team — Deep Dive →
Watch the German Football Disasters Documentary
The Worst Bundesliga Team of All Time
