😵‍💫 Debutant loses his head: 90 minutes at Schalke will do that to you | OneFootball

Schalke 04 is anything but a normal football club. Even an experienced player like Nikola Katic had to realize this during his royal blue competitive debut.

Because the 28-year-old was marked in several ways after the 90 minutes against Hertha. With his header goal in the 23rd minute, the defender immediately made it onto the scorers' list. His goal ultimately secured the 2:1 home victory.

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Just before the end, the 1.94-meter giant sustained a cut on his head, which was promptly glued on the pitch. The tough Bosnian carried on, even though he apparently could no longer see clearly.

Because Katic received a yellow-red card in stoppage time for a deliberate handball. In the header duel with Hertha's Fabian Reese, he rose to the artificial leather in the style of a volleyball middle blocker.

"I think he didn't know what he was doing," his coach Miron Muslic speculated after the game on the 'Sky' microphone. Katic must have felt like he was in the wrong movie. Because in 257 professional games, the defender had never seen a dismissal due to the second warning. It took exactly 90 minutes at Schalke.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Christof Koepsel - 2025 Getty Images