In excerpts from the book published in advance by Sport Bild, Fährmann reveals, among other things, the ritual he used to keep in away games against Schalke's arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund: "When I stepped onto the pitch in Dortmund to warm up, my first official act was always to spit heartily towards the Südtribüne, the 'Yellow Wall'. On the 'Süd' there are more than 20,000 lunatics who all wish us dead. Spitting was always my special greeting to them."
Back at the start of Fährmann's time in the S04 first-team squad, Manuel Neuer was still No 1 for the Royal Blues. "He really changed goalkeeping," gushes the 38-year-old about his former team-mate, before offering some intriguing insight into Neuer: "It wasn't that Manu didn't like going out partying. Quite the opposite: Manu was part of the ultras and often 'performed magic' with them as well. Later, as a professional, he sometimes travelled back with the ultras on their train instead of on the team bus. Or wore an ultra T-shirt under his goalkeeper shirt."
After a loan spell at Eintracht Frankfurt from 2009 to 2011, Fährmann initially became Schalke's new No 1 when Neuer left Gelsenkirchen for Bayern Munich. A cruciate ligament tear then brought him to an abrupt halt in autumn 2011, and he did not win back his regular place until the end of 2013, keeping it until the start of 2019. Schalke coach at the time Domenico Tedesco then demoted him.
How did Ralf Fährmann find out about his first demotion at Schalke?
"I sensed that something wasn't right, but I would never in my life have guessed what was waiting for me," Fährmann recalls of the conversation in question. "Inside, Domenico Tedesco was sitting relaxed on a sofa. His assistant coach Peter Perchtold was sitting on a chair. Tedesco asked: 'How are you?' Answer: 'Good.' Tedesco: 'We are going to make a goalkeeping change for the second half of the season. Alex Nübel will be the new number one.' From that moment on, my autopilot took over: 'Why?' That was all I managed to get out," said the former Germany youth international goalkeeper.
After losing his regular place at the club closest to his heart, which he had joined as a 14-year-old from faraway Chemnitz, the blow hit hard. "I went back to my room. They had just torn my heart and soul out. I felt as if a part of me had died," explains Fährmann, who a few months later was loaned to Norwich City and immediately afterwards to Brann Bergen.
Getty ImagesBy the summer of 2020, he was back at Schalke and a year later went down as No 1. From that first second-division season, one moment stands out for him: a team talk from then coach Dimitrios Grammozis. "How can I best describe him? After a 2-1 defeat in Düsseldorf, he ranted in the match analysis a day later: 'You want to f*ck me? You want to f*ck my staff? You can f*ck your Insta girlfriends, but not me'." It landed even worse because Schalke at that time had "probably the best-behaved team I had played in", according to Fährmann. "Many were family men. The team fell into embarrassed silence after this tirade."
Then there were the curious stories about former S04 sporting director Peter Knäbel, who worked at Schalke in various roles from 2018 to 2024: "He always crept silently through corridors and suddenly stood in front of you. He always left his office door open. We speculated that he did it so he could listen in on our conversations," writes Fährmann, before turning to Knäbel's "legendary blazer": "It was hanging somewhere else every day. Sometimes with the physios, sometimes in our dressing room, sometimes in the gym. He put it down to his forgetfulness. We suspected he was eavesdropping on us that way. Which says a lot about our relationship with him."
How did Ralf Fährmann's time at Schalke end?
By the end, Fährmann's Schalke career fizzled out in grim fashion. In pre-season in the summer of 2024, he had been reassigned to the Under-23s, and in the following autumn a mud-slinging match developed between club and player, and it quickly became clear that Fährmann's contract, which was due to expire in 2025, would not be extended.
"And so everything was taken away from me, the one who had left his home and family for Schalke at the age of 14. My training parking space - gone. Banned from the dressing room. I was no longer allowed to shower. I felt like I had to get changed in a Dixi toilet, because the Under-23s were housed in a makeshift container village. I had to train with amateur and youth players. And even my tickets for the matches were taken away from me," recalls Fährmann, who made the last of his total of 289 competitive appearances for S04 at the end of January 2024 in a 4-1 defeat in Kaiserslautern.
Now living in Switzerland, the former goalkeeper still cannot let go of the club closest to his heart despite the disappointing farewell: "As much as I have tried to ignore Schalke, I can't do it. I follow all the matches on TV and so badly want sporting success for the fans. Despite everything: I love Schalke. That is the truth," Fährmann stresses.