Fan favorite

Schalke announced on Tuesday that former boss Huub Stevens was to take over as coach following the resignation of Ralf Rangnick.

Rangnick shocked Schalke club bosses last week when he quit his position, blaming fatigue.

The Dutchman takes over with immediate effect and will be present to see his new team take to the field in the Europa League against Maccabi Haifa on Thursday evening.

Stevens is already popular with the club's fans after coaching the Gelsenkirchen club between 1996 and 2002 and guiding them to their most memorable achievement - victory in the UEFA Cup Final against Inter Milan in 1997.

"I worked here for six years, it's not just any club," said Stevens in a press conference on Tuesday. "Once Schalke, always Schalke - I am happy to be back."

"The team has a lot of potential, but we have to find the right balance," he added. "We want to play football the fans can identify themselves with."

Relief for club bosses

Stevens had also been in line for the top job at Hamburg - another one of his former clubs - and there was obvious relief on the part of the Schalke board that they had managed to lure him back.

"We didn't want to experiment," said Schalke sports director Horst Heldt. "Huub is coming home and his fire is still burning. He can tell you much more about Schalke than I know myself."

As well as winning the UEFA Cup, a predecessor of today's Europa League competition, Stevens also won the German Cup twice. He was voted by fans as coach of the football club's "team of the century."

Apart from Schalke and Hamburg, Stevens has coached Cologne, Hertha Berlin, Austria's RB Salzburg, Roda Kerkrade and PSV Eindhoven. He was also a player at Eindhoven for 11 years.

Stevens' first Bundesliga game in his new role comes Sunday in a soccer showdown with, of all teams, Hamburg.

Author: Richard Connor (APE, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler