Schalke coach looks to Bosnia bond in Bundesliga return

“A year ago, I told my team that we need to step things up by two gears, and we did that,” Schalke‘s second-year coach, Miron Muslic, told the club’s website ahead of this season’s return to the Bundesliga.

“Now we need to step things up by two gears all over again. At first glance it may sound like a threat, too dramatic, but this is what we will need to meet this challenge. The lads know this and we are confident that we have a higher gear in us.”

The challenge for Muslic is not simply to avoid relegation in year one after three seasons in the second division, but to “establish ourselves in the Bundesliga.”

It will also be Muslic’s first season in the Bundesliga after he succeeded where several of his predecessors failed – guiding the Royal Blues back to the topflight.

‘Where did this guy come from?’

It’s something few would have predicted just over a year ago, when he was unveiled as Schalke’s new head coach. Many, if not most, of the club’s supporters will have been left scrolling on their phones to try to figure out just who he was.  It’s a point not lost on the Austrian coach, who fled the Bosnian War with his parents at the age of nine.

“Many were wondering; ‘Who is this guy, where did he come from?’” Muslic, who joined from lower league English club Plymouth Argyle, told German football magazine “kicker” last October, after Schalke had climbed to the top of the standings for the first time in the campaign.

That’s where they finished the first half of the season. But during the January transfer window, Muslic and sporting director Frank Baumann still weren’t sure the squad had what it would take to guarantee a top-two finish – and automatic promotion – at the end of the campaign.

Proven goal scorer looking for playing time

Then the final piece to the promotion puzzle fell into Muslic’s lap. Bosnia captain Edin Dzeko, a striker who has been prolific virtually everywhere he has played, was largely languishing on the bench at Italian club Fiorentina, and looking for playing time. He let it be known that he was prepared to take a major pay cut to help Schalke achieve promotion. By the time they’d done just that, he had contributed six goals to the cause – and just turned 40.

Many expected Dzeko to hang up his boots after he captained Bosnia in just their second appearance at the World Cup this past summer. However, a couple of weeks before the start of the season, Dzeko confirmed that he would make his return to the Bundesliga – 15 seasons after he last played in the league with Wolfsburg. After signing a one-year, bonus-heavy contract, Dzeko said that while he had “three other options” he made up his mind that if he was to continue playing, it would only be at Schalke.

Dzeko ‘still hungry’ at 40

“Winning promotion to the Bundesliga is one of the highlights of my career,” Dzeko told the club’s website.

“I’m still hungry. And I want to help our team in the Bundesliga, too.”

Just how much action Dzeko will see in the Bundesliga is unclear. However, Muslic, who is understood to have pushed hard to bring his countryman back for another year, believes he can still be a difference maker in key situations.

Still, he isn’t expected to see as much playing time as the third member of Schalke’s Bosnian triumvirate, central defender Nikola Katic, whose winding road to Gelsenkirchen saw him work with Muslic a few years ago at Plymouth. Even before Dzeko arrived in Gelsenkirchen last winter, he and Katic already knew each other from the national team.

‘Once Schalke, always Schalke,’ but…

Now all three are committed to ensuring that Schalke’s return to the Bundesliga is more than a one-season excursion, and Muslic, whose contract runs through the end of the 2027-28 season, hopes he will remain in charge for years to come.

“I will remain a member of Schalke 04 forever — 100 percent. No matter how our paths might part one day,” the coach told “kicker” last October.

At the same time, he’s realistic enough to know that as a coach, he won’t be in Gelsenkirchen forever. While his current focus is all about Schalke, he already knows where he would like to wind up somewhere down the road.

“I would like to be the national team coach of Bosnia-Herzegovina one day,” he said.

“And I believe it will happen. The fundamental prerequisites are simply a perfect fit — my background, my connection, and the love for my home country.”

For now though, the focus is on the new season; Schalke were left licking their wounds after fourth-tier Halle took them to extra time in their first-round German Cup match on Monday – before emerging with a 5-2 win. Dzeko, who had come on in the 64th minute expecting to play only half an hour, scored two of Schalke’s goals. 

Ever the optimist, Muslic said afterwards that the hard-fought result not only proved that “we’ll need Edin” in the Bundesliga season, but that Schalke had also demonstrated their “resilience.” 

Next comes the first real test of whether Schalke can indeed kick it up a couple of gears, when they make their Bundsliga return in Augsburg on Sunday.

Edited by: Matt Pearson