Some clubs you choose. Schalke I just grew up with — royal blue, through thick and (mostly) thin.
Schalke 04 has been my club for as long as I can remember. It's not a decision you make so much as something you're born into, and for me it was always the Royal Blues. The catch, of course, is that the last few years haven't exactly sent them to the kind of stages I get to work at — so for all my love of the club, I'd almost never had the chance to actually photograph them.
I managed it once, in Ulm. And then, almost by accident, they turned up on my doorstep: a friendly just across the border in Lustenau, Austria. I didn't think twice. I sorted a photo accreditation, got in the car and drove straight there.
The players I usually only see on TV — suddenly right there in front of my lens.
Standing on the touchline and finally seeing — and shooting — the players I normally only watch on a screen was a strange, brilliant feeling. Bringing the fan and the photographer together in a single afternoon doesn't happen often, and when it does, with your own club, it means something.
I also got to meet a lot of great people from the Schalke media house, and I'm hoping to stay in much closer contact with them from here. For a club this close to my heart, that's the part I'm most excited about.
I don't know exactly what comes next. But after this afternoon in Lustenau, I'm genuinely looking forward to finding out.
