Christian Gross, the Swiss manager who has spent the last five years enhancing his worldly reputation across the Middle East, always prided himself on his motivational strengths. If his words do not galvanise his players, he will seek out a powerful symbol.
In his younger days in his native Switzerland, he would take his squads to the foot of a mountain, point upwards, and let them absorb the message that no peak is too high to scale if the desire is there.
He began a brief, less successful spell at Tottenham Hotspur in 1997 by pointing to the club’s crest and identifying the cockerel on it as “a fighting cockerel”. At Spurs, he clutched a ticket from the London Underground at his presentation and told a sceptical audience of reporters it was his “ticket to dreams.”
Gross turned 66 in August, and would be entitled to look back on a varied career with pride, admire his legacy at clubs as different as Basel in Switzerland, Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia and Zamalek in Egypt and then turn his thoughts to retirement. Instead, he will go into 2021, his 33rd year as a coach with perhaps the most daunting challenge he ever faced – to save Schalke from relegation from the Bundesliga’s top tier.
Gross is the fourth different head coach to be asked to do that already this season, a season that is only 13 league matches old. David Wagner, who oversaw the beginning of what is a vicious downward spiral through the disrupted 2019-20 campaign, lasted two matches – two defeats – into 2020-21. Manuel Baum then had 10 games in charge, and at least one major dressing-room flare-up during his 79-day tenure, in which Schalke scratched out four points from a possible 30.
When Baum was shown the door, after the 2-0 home loss to Freiburg, the club appealed to the loyalty of Huub Stevens, the Dutchman whom Schalke supporters voted their Coach of the Century in happier times, and who 23 years ago guided them to triumph in the Uefa Cup.
Stevens, 67, took over as interim coach for the final match before the Bundesliga’s short winter break. His verdict on the first game of his fourth tenure as Schalke coach, his second as interim firefighter, was damning: “If the players give up, what’s the point?,” he said after the 1-0 loss to Arminia Bielefeld.
Stevens saw little enough point for him to make an emergency application to extend his coaching licence, which expires at the beginning of January. He may suspect he has sidestepped a huge blemish on his otherwise distinguished overall record with Schalke.
If they fail to win either of their first two matches in the new year, Schalke will match a notorious landmark, the 31-game winless run of a club called Tasmania-Berlin back in 1966. Were Schalke to then take a point or less from their fixture with Eintracht Frankfurt on January 17th, it would mark a full 12 months since they last won a Bundesliga game.
Schalke are not Tasmania-Berlin, who only ever spent one disastrous season in Germany’s top division. Schalke are a Bundesliga heavyweight, the club with probably the third-largest fan-base in the country, with a 60,000 modern stadium, who have made it to a Champions League semi-final in the last decade. They are the nursery of world champions like Manuel Neuer and Mesut Ozil. They finished second in the league to Bayern Munich as recently as 2018.
By then, a heavy burden of debt, now estimated at around €250 million ($305.7m), was accumulating, however, and the bottom-of-the-table strugglers are still paying an overall wage bill among the highest in the Bundesliga. The squad is not short of promise – in the likes of defender Ozan Kabak and Germany international Suat Serdar – or experience – players such as the former Manchester City defender Matija Nastasic and striker Mark Uth – but confidence has drained, systems malfunctioned, leaving them confronting a first relegation since 1988.
Enter Gross, who last year led Zamalek to victory in the CAF Cup, Africa’s equivalent of the Europa League, before returning to Al-Ahli Jeddah for a brief third spell there.
“I want to feel the players’ desire every second I am here,” he said boldly on taking up his enviable challenge.
What Groos can cite in his favour is his previous work in the Bundesliga. Stuttgart asked him to stave off a relegation threat in 2009. He lifted them from 16th in the table in October to sixth, and a place in Europe, by May. His task at Schalke looks an even steeper mountain to climb.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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More from Neighbourhood Watch
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Essentials
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Malaysia Airlines all fly direct from the UAE to Kuala Lumpur and on to Penang from about Dh2,300 return, including taxes.
Where to stay
In Kuala Lumpur, Element is a recently opened, futuristic hotel high up in a Norman Foster-designed skyscraper. Rooms cost from Dh400 per night, including taxes. Hotel Stripes, also in KL, is a great value design hotel, with an infinity rooftop pool. Rooms cost from Dh310, including taxes.
In Penang, Ren i Tang is a boutique b&b in what was once an ancient Chinese Medicine Hall in the centre of Little India. Rooms cost from Dh220, including taxes.
23 Love Lane in Penang is a luxury boutique heritage hotel in a converted mansion, with private tropical gardens. Rooms cost from Dh400, including taxes.
In Langkawi, Temple Tree is a unique architectural villa hotel consisting of antique houses from all across Malaysia. Rooms cost from Dh350, including taxes.
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch
Power: 710bhp
Torque: 770Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 2.9 seconds
Top Speed: 340km/h
Price: Dh1,000,885
On sale: now
How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
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RESULTS
Men – semi-finals
57kg – Tak Chuen Suen (MAC) beat Phuong Xuan Nguyen (VIE) 29-28; Almaz Sarsembekov (KAZ) beat Zakaria Eljamari (UAE) by points 30-27.
67kg – Mohammed Mardi (UAE) beat Huong The Nguyen (VIE) by points 30-27; Narin Wonglakhon (THA) v Mojtaba Taravati Aram (IRI) by points 29-28.
60kg – Yerkanat Ospan (KAZ) beat Amir Hosein Kaviani (IRI) 30-27; Long Doan Nguyen (VIE) beat Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) 29-28
63.5kg – Abil Galiyev (KAZ) beat Truong Cao Phat (VIE) 30-27; Nouredine Samir (UAE) beat Norapat Khundam (THA) RSC round 3.
71kg – Shaker Al Tekreeti (IRQ) beat Fawzi Baltagi (LBN) 30-27; Amine El Moatassime (UAE) beat Man Kongsib (THA) 29-28
81kg – Ilyass Hbibali (UAE) beat Alexandr Tsarikov (KAZ) 29-28; Khaled Tarraf (LBN) beat Mustafa Al Tekreeti (IRQ) 30-27
86kg – Ali Takaloo (IRI) beat Mohammed Al Qahtani (KSA) RSC round 1; Emil Umayev (KAZ) beat Ahmad Bahman (UAE) TKO round
EPL's youngest
- Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)
15 years, 181 days old
- Max Dowman (Arsenal)
15 years, 235 days old
- Jeremy Monga (Leicester)
15 years, 271 days old
- Harvey Elliott (Fulham)
16 years, 30 days old
- Matthew Briggs (Fulham)
16 years, 68 days old
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
