After six years in Linz with LASK, Reinhold Ranftl ventured to Germany to join traditional club FC Schalke 04 last summer. The 29-year-old has experienced mixed times at the “Knappen” since his start.
In the summer, a dream came true for Reinhold Ranftl when he moved to Germany to join traditional club FC Schalke 04. After six years in Linz with LASK and 241 competitive games, the winger decided to make the leap across the border and signed on with the relegated German Bundesliga side. The 29-year-old was received with much praise by club and fans alike, but four months later his start to his new adventure has been more mixed than the six-time Austria international had imagined.
“At the beginning I felt a huge euphoria after the change, I wanted to show everyone and immediately bring in my strengths. But then I kept having little setbacks, and I also underestimated the whole thing a bit. There was a lot to do with the move and getting used to the new environment. I had been in Linz for six years before that. That wasn’t easy, but in the meantime I feel comfortable in my new home. Of course I’m still doing better on the pitch, but I’m getting more and more into the game and slowly getting there.
In particular, the high sporting level in the second German Bundesliga caught him (161 games in the highest Austrian division) cold at first: “I assessed the level a little differently. You have to be at 100 per cent in every game, the teams and the opponents are really very good. I’ve played a few international games, but you can’t compare that to a championship like this. The 2nd Division really has a top level, the style of play is also a little different from what it was in Linz. I simply needed time, which I didn’t give myself enough. Of course you get restless when the performance is not what you expect. I then played very little for a while, tried to fight my way back in training and did well. In some of the games I showed what I can do. It was important to give myself more time, I just needed it. “
“Technically and tactically, everyone here is incredibly well trained “
His record so far with nine competitive appearances in 14 games is nevertheless decent, even if he was on the pitch for the full 90 minutes in only three of his seven games in the starting line-up. After Ranftl had been an undisputed regular at LASK for years and had also made a splash in the European Cup with the Linz club, he will have to face competition again at Schalke for the first time in a long while.
He also has some catching up to do, as Ranftl reveals: “In any case, I still have to improve my build-up play. I already work very well against the ball, but here the focus is much more on playing with the ball than it was at LASK. At the beginning, I really struggled with positioning, receiving and taking the ball. In the meantime, I have made a leap forward. Technically and tactically, everyone here is incredibly well trained. You play against players who have played 100 Bundesliga games or more. It doesn’t make any difference whether Reinhold Ranftl comes from Austria with 100 Bundesliga games under his belt. The level in general is just really strong. “
With Stuttgart loanee Churlinov and Schalke’s own 19-year-old Aydin, who has surprisingly played his way into the starting eleven of the professional team this season with convincing performances.
“At the beginning, of course, you struggle with the situation and think to yourself: Phew, that’s hard. I haven’t been in a situation like that for a long time. It was not completely unknown to me, I had the situation once before at Sturm Graz, where I also played little. Of course I was very unhappy, frustrated because I just couldn’t show my performance. I then thought about what the problem was, where I needed to improve and then simply tried to work on the areas where I still needed to catch up in training. I don’t have to sugarcoat it, I needed a certain amount of time to get going with my opening. I had to work on that, but as you can see: Hard work brings you back. You just have to not bury your head in the sand. Of course I still have to improve, I want to get back to where I was and I’m working for that every day,” said Ranftl, motivated in his fight for a place in the first eleven.
At the moment I’m a bit far away to claim to be there again.
Although the prolific scorer (63 in 241 games for LASK) has not yet managed a goal or an assist this season, he has been given two 90-minute starts in the last three games following an injury to Aydin. They celebrated one victory and were defeated once. In general, Ranftl’s current season still resembles a rollercoaster ride, but even when he is on the bench, the winger does not get frustrated, but tries to support his team vociferously.
“If you sit on the bench and hope that the team loses, that’s the wrong way to go. You want to feel that when you’re on the pitch yourself, your colleagues are behind you and wish you the best. I’m not 20 anymore, when I still have my whole career ahead of me. I’m 29 and came to Schalke with the goal of the club playing in the first Bundesliga again. Even if I don’t play another game this season and we get promoted, I will have fulfilled my goal. It doesn’t matter how much I played. Of course I want to play as much as possible, but I’m also happy when Memo (Aydin, note) or Darko (Churlinov, note) put in a good performance and we win at the end of the day. That is the most important thing,” Ranftl said.
Ranftl felt the nationally known passion of the Schalke fans right at the beginning of his adventure, who created a real online hype around him when he signed up with the “Reini Ranftl Rackers” and generally have a very strong and almost incomparable bond to the club than what one is used to in Austria: “When I’m driving on the motorway here, I see cars with Schalke stickers every day, there is almost only football here. People cling to football, they suffer with the club and only want the best. For our part, we also do our best, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, unfortunately. Here in the Ruhr, it’s pure football, I’ve talked to a lot of people about it. Against Dresden, for example, 54,000 fans were in the stadium in the second division. That was the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of. That was an awesome experience and you can see what kind of drawing power Schalke 04 has. “
Ranftl convinced of LASK turnaround
Despite a regular place at LASK, the 29-year-old did not make it into the Austrian European Championship squad last summer. The move to Germany should change that, but Ranftl must first establish himself at Schalke before he considers a return to the national team: “When I moved to Schalke, it was of course a topic for me that I would like to return. But at the moment I have to do my homework here first and then I can set myself the next goal. At the moment, I’m already a bit far away from being able to claim to be back. For me, it’s important that I show my best performance here and then it would be nice to be part of the national team again. But if it doesn’t work out, that would be okay, too. Of course, as a footballer you always have the goal to play for your country, but the fact that I’ve been part of it a few times gives me confidence and also helps me in difficult times. Now the full focus is on Schalke 04 for now.”
Ranftl is not the only one still struggling with fluctuations in form this season; his former club LASK is also finding it difficult to find its form this term. However, Ranftl is not too worried about his former home club: “The table is very tight. With two or three wins, you’re right back in it. Of course, it’s never easy when top performers leave the club, plus they have a lot of new players who still need some time. LASK’s football is different from what most people know, it’s pressing, pressing, pressing. I’ve experienced it myself, you need a certain amount of time to get used to it. But I am still in contact with many of the boys there, they are all motivated and give their all. That’s why I’m convinced that the club will be in the top four again at the end of the season. “