Schalke 04: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s last hunt?

When it seemed that everything was set for a calm retirement in the Netherlands, Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar seems poised to have one last adventure in football, with the possibility of going back to the Bundesliga and play once again for one of the most important teams of his career, Schalke 04.

It seemed pretty straightforward: six last months in the Eredivisie and then head home for a peaceful retirement. But striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar seems to have another decision in mind: to go back to Germany and help his former team, Schalke 04, in their struggles with relegation.

The former Real Madrid striker, Huntelaar, announced a few weeks ago that he was going to retire from professional football by the end of this season, but he is now poised to end the last six months of his career in the Bundesliga to provide goals and experience to a Schalke side that only has one victory through the entire league tournament. Klass-Jan Huntelaar stated that Schalke had contacted Ajax for his transfer right after scoring two vital goals against Twente in his team’s 3-1 victory. Huntelaar entered as a sub and scored the goals in aggregate time–probably the last two goals he is ever going to score in an Ajax shirt.

Huntelaar spent seven years at Schalke, playing from 2010 to 2017, scoring 126 goals in 240 games and quickly becoming a fan favorite of the German club. His best season at the Bundesliga, and the best season of his career as a whole, was the 2011/12 one where he scored 48 goals in 48 games across all competitions. An old school striker, a class hunter of the opposition’s box, his goals, quality and experience could prove to be monumental for a Schalke side that is struggling in pretty much every single aspect of their game and need all the help they can get. Klaas-Jan’s last hunt? We’ll see.