On Tuesday morning Bohemians reveled that they will be playing Bundesliga 2 side Schalke in a blockbuster friendly on October 11th, in Dalymount Park.
Schalke are one of the fallen giants of German football, the seven time Bundesliga champions currently play their football in the German second tier but are by no means a small club. In addition to those seven league titles is a host of domestic cups plus the 96/97 UEFA Cup.
The lack of success for The Royal Blues this decade hasn’t resulted in a loss of fans, they have consistently averaged a home attendee of over 60,000, and with no European football since the 18/19 Champions League campaign, there will likely be many keen to travel to Dublin.
The game will be played during the final international break of the League of Ireland season, on the same day the Irish national team travel to Lisbon to take on Portugal. In the remaining three games of the season that follow this friendly, Bohs will travel to Galway, before hosting rivals Shelbourne, and finally away to Drogheda United.
All three of those games will have big implications on their final league position, so keeping momentum going by facing a strong side like Schalke during the international break could be vital in the fight for European football.
This will no doubt be a high profile encounter and yet another successful monetary project for Bohemians, limited tickets are currently available via the Bohemians website.