Schalke suspend two senior players and rip up another's contract | OneFootball

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Padraig Whelan·24 November 2020

Schalke suspend two senior players and rip up another's contract

Article image:Schalke suspend two senior players and rip up another's contract

Schalke’s incredible season has taken another shock twist on Tuesday night with news of some first team changes.

The club announced that Nabil Bentaleb and Amine Harit have been suspended and will train alone until further notice.


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Meanwhile, striker Vedad Ibisević will have his contract terminated on December 31.

Director of sport and communications Jochen Schneider discussed the latter decision first of all.

“Both Vedad and the club had different expectations of his involvement at Schalke 04,” he said via a club statement.

“From our point of view, it is now better to end things and part on good terms. I’ve known and valued Vedad for many years – both as a player and as a person but unfortunately things didn’t work out like we planned.

“We would like to expressly emphasise that his emotional outburst in training last Sunday has absolutely nothing to do with this decision – those things happen in football.”

He also expects the currently suspended Bentaleb to follow suit and leave Gelsenkirchen in the not too distant future.

“He is undisputedly an excellent footballer but Schalke and Bentaleb obviously don’t go together,” Schneider said of him.

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“There wasn’t one particular moment, it was a process. We will part ways by summer 2021 at the latest.”

With Harit though, he is hopeful that he finds his way back into the first team picture soon.

“A few things happened last weekend that we didn’t like so Amine has been given for reflection,” added Schneider.

“He has great sporting potential but has not been able to use it in the interests of our team in recent months.

“We will do everything we can to bring him back to the point where he can bring his qualities to our club. It’s up to Amine that he quickly finds his way back to the team.”