Former Schalke player Sobottka looking forward to highlight match
Marcel Sobottka, who trained as a youth player at FC Schalke 04, is not letting the poor league position of his former club blind him ahead of the Gelsenkirchen side's second league West German clash with Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday (20:30/Sky and Sport1). "There's no question that Schalke have quality. We don't need to go into it with that in mind: They're sixteenth in the table," Fortuna's current captain told the Funke-Mediengruppe newspapers.
Sobottka is expecting a great crowd in the sold-out Düsseldorf Arena. "The atmosphere will be heated. There will be a lot of Schalke fans in the stadium. We'll have to go in there with everything we've got, otherwise we won't survive," said the 29-year-old native of Gelsenkirchen. "A lot of people in my family and my environment have a blue and white heart. It was an important part of my youth. For me personally, these are two highlight games of the season and it might be a bit more emotional," said Sobottka.
The demand for tickets in his area was enormous. "I didn't get all the ones I wanted - so I did get a few," the midfielder revealed.
Sobottka mentioned that Fortuna Düsseldorf will be facing Schalke 04 in Bundesliga 2, highlighting it as one of his personal season highlights due to his youth connections with Schalke. In anticipation of the sold-out Düsseldorf Arena match, Sobottka expressed that his family and community roots with Schalke will add an emotional layer to the highly-anticipated Bundesliga 2 clash between the two West German clubs.
Source: www.dpa.com
