In Germany, football clubs are intertwined with their community, and perhaps no club embodies that connection better than Schalke.

Fuelled by passionate support from a local area proud of its coal-mining roots and traditions, Schalke have grown to become one of Germany's best-supported and most successful clubs. bundesliga.com looks at 10 things you need to know about the Royal Blues...

1) The People’s Champions

In 2001, for four glorious minutes, Schalke were Bundesliga champions for the first time. Then, in the blink of an eye, the title was taken away from them in the cruellest possible fashion, as a goal from Bayern Munich's Patrik Andersson at Hamburg, in the final seconds of the season's last game, gave the Bavarians the championship and condemned Schalke to second place by a single point. Though they were on the wrong end of the most gripping title race in history, the Schalke team of that year have become club legends, and even earned the nickname “Meister der Herzen” – The People’s Champions – from the rest of German football.

Watch: Schalke's hearts were broken by Andersson's title-winning free-kick

2) Royal Blue since 1924

FC Schalke 04’s earliest presence as a sports club dates back to its founding as Westphalia Schalke on 4 May 1904 (hence the 04 in the club’s name), and their first kit was red and yellow. However, after a series of mergers with other sports clubs alongside various name changes, Schalke’s football department broke away in 1924 to form the club as it is currently known, doing away with their previous colours and starting afresh with a blue and white strip, soon afterwards becoming known as the Royal Blues.

3) A famed academy

German clubs’ commitment to giving young players a chance to impress in the Bundesliga is well known, but few clubs have a better record in this department than Schalke. The Royal Blues academy – known as Die Knappenschmiede – has been the classroom for countless star names to have emerged since the turn of the century. The likes of Manuel Neuer, Mesut Özil, Julian Draxler, Leroy Sane and former centre-back Benedikt Höwedes are just some of Schalke’s academy graduates to have gone on to the very top of the game.

Watch: Schalke Academy Dream Team

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4) Coal-mining heritage

Around the same time as the Royal Blue moniker caught on, Schalke also gained another nickname: Die Knappen, an old German word for miners, on account of the strong support they received from local mine workers in Gelsenkirchen that made up both their fanbase and playing staff. Ernst Kuzorra, perhaps Schalke’s most famous player and the man whose name appears in the club’s address, was a colliery worker before playing for the club full-time.

5) One night in Milan

Fast forward three quarters of a century from Kuzorra's heyday and Schalke are on the brink of winning a first ever European competition. Under Huub Stevens, The Royal Blues got past Valencia and Tenerife before facing Italian giants Inter Milan in the 1997 UEFA Cup final. They won the first leg 1-0 courtesy of a Marc Wilmots goal and lost the second leg at the San Siro by the same scoreline, but four successful penalties out of four and a save from goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in the shootout was enough to win the trophy and cement Stevens’ status as the club’s “Jahrhunderttrainer” - Coach of the Century - and earn that crop of players the nickname "Eurofighter" that lasts to this day.

Jens Lehmann lifts aloft the UEFA Cup trophy in 1997 after playing a key role in the triumph over Inter Milan in the final. - imago/Uwe Kraft

6) Goalkeeping experts

Not only are Schalke among the best in the world at promoting talented youngsters into the first team, there appears to be something in the Gelsenkirchen water that produces top-class goalkeepers. Neuer is undoubtedly their most famous and successful alumni in  this regard, but he is by no means a one-off. Lehmann came through the ranks before him, spending ten years at the club between 1988-1998, making 274 competitive appearances. After Neuer there was Ralf Fährmann, who was first-choice custodian for eight years before being ousted by current captain Alexander Nübel.

7) Ruhr rivals up the road

Of course, 1997 was also the year that another German club, Borussia Dortmund, tasted success in Europe by winning the UEFA Champions League. Indeed, that season marks a standout moment in both clubs’ histories, and it is therefore fitting that Schalke and Dortmund find themselves separated by 25 miles of autobahn and contesting arguably the fiercest rivalry in world football.

The Revierderby, as their jousts are known, is known the world over as one of the game’s most intense spectacles and is the fixture the fans look forward to most. Score in a derby game and you’re a hero for life. Just ask Shinji Kagawa, who scored his first ever Bundesliga goal against Schalke, or Naldo, who scored the decisive goal in the craziest Revierderby of all time….

Watch: Bundesliga legend Oliver Kahn analyses Nübel's game

8) BVB 4-4 Schalke: the comeback to end all comebacks

The setting: Signal Iduna Park, the occasion: Dortmund vs Schalke, Matchday 13 of the 2017/18 season. A quarter of the game in and Borussia were 4-0 up and seemingly heading off any talks of trouble brewing under their new coach Peter Bosz. Then came the second half, when the world seemed to turn on its axis. Schalke pulled one back, then another and then another to trail 4-3 heading into injury time, when up popped the aforementioned Naldo to crash in a header and complete what surely must be the most astonishing comeback in Bundesliga history.

9 ) Red, White and Royal Blue

Another well-known academy graduate is a young man currently impressing in the first team. USA international Weston McKennie is one of the club’s prized assets, having joined the academy in 2016, he worked under Domenico Tedesco in the youth set-up and then successfully made the leap to the first team. The Texas native is also the latest in a growing list of American players to have represented the club, joining such names as Haji Wright, Jermaine Jones, Chad Deering, Tom Dooley and current head coach David Wagner.

Watch: Schalke's unbelievable Revierderby comeback in 4-4 draw

10) An arena to envy

Schalke’s traditional home, the Parkstadion, is remembered fondly by the fans, but its replacement, the Veltins Arena, is one of the finest arenas in the world. Atmospheric, modern and innovative, it has a fully retractable pitch that allows the stadium to be used as a concert venue while avoiding damage to the turf. The ground was also the venue for the 2004 Champions League final and hosted five games in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Schalke fans, whose noise makes it one of the most intimidating grounds in the division, have a wonderful stadium to call home.

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