Schalke 04 II

Neues Parkstadion holds not quite 3,000, a fraction of the arena the first team plays in across the same city. Schalke 04 II shares the ground with the amateur set-up that has replaced the old Glückauf-Kampfbahn as its regular home.

The team was known as FC Schalke 04 Amateure until 2005, when it took its current name, though its history runs back to 1904, the founding year of the parent club, then registered as Westfalia Schalke. German football bars a reserve team from sharing a division with its own first team, so Schalke 04 II stays capped at the Regionalliga West and below no matter how high the senior side climbs. Its one significant honour came within that ceiling, the Regionalliga West title in 1998–99.

What the ground has actually hosted matters more than what it has won. Manuel Neuer and Leroy Sané both came through this side on their way out of the Knappenschmiede academy.

It remains, in the end, what it was set up to be in 1904: the step before Schalke 04 proper.