Eighteen months is a very long time in a football career. When Frederik Rönnow played in Gelsenkirchen for the last time, he was in the middle of his worst season as a professional. In March 2021 Schalke 04 was on the verge of relegation and Rönnow on the verge of their second injury in a few months. He played eleven Bundesliga games under four different coaches for Schalke and conceded a whopping 27 goals.
Rönnow returns to Gelsenkirchen for the first time with 1. FC Union on Saturday and the outlook could hardly be more different. In the penultimate season he experienced one of the most dramatic crashes in Bundesliga history with Schalke. Today he is enjoying one of their most remarkable flights of fancy with Union.
“Of course it’s completely different now,” said the Union goalkeeper on Wednesday. “This season at Schalke was so difficult. There was so much pressure, the first win hadn’t come for so long.” Union, on the other hand, has only been going in one direction since his arrival in summer 2021. Up.
This does not only apply to the team, which is in third place after three matchdays and is now preparing for the upcoming group stage in the Europa League. It also applies to Rönnow personally.
Since arriving in Germany in 2018, the Danish goalkeeper has played the role of the unlucky for a long time. He was constantly struggling with injuries at both Eintracht Frankfurt and Schalke and was never able to assert himself as a regular keeper.
After his move to Union, it initially looked as if this trend would continue. For a long time he only played second fiddle to Andreas Luthe, and it was only in March that the Danish national coach Kasper Hjulmand publicly wondered why Rönnow didn’t get more assignments. But since spring everything has changed.
Luthe was injured at the end of March and Rönnow took his chance. He put in strong performances in the final weeks of the season and Luthe left the club for Kaiserslautern in the summer. In the new season, Rönnow has been the clear number one in goal for the Köpenickers.
His standing with Hjulmand and the national team is unlikely to change as a result. Rönnow was ailing at the Nations League games in the summer and was therefore not in the squad at all. He can’t get past Kasper Schmeichel anyway. At the World Cup in Qatar, he should only go as a substitute.
But the 30-year-old sees that easily. “It is what it is,” he sighed in English, grinning, when asked about the competition with Schmeichel. “Honestly, I haven’t played that much in Germany in recent years and he’s always played in the Premier League. So it’s hard for me to say that I have to play in front of him in the national team. ”So the Dane says his focus is more on Union.
Because there is also competition in Köpenick, and Rönnow first had to get used to the role of the hunted. In addition to his compatriot and long-time friend Jakob Busk, he now also has Lennart Grill, on loan from Leverkusen, breathing down his neck.
“Lennart is a good goalkeeper and always wants to play,” said Rönnow. He sympathizes with his teammate, who is now in a similar situation as he was a year ago. “It’s always difficult being number two. You can do everything better in training, but if the number one is good in the game, then he stays number one.”
Rönnow has done that well so far, even if he didn’t look so confident when Leipzig scored last weekend. After seven points and two goals conceded in the first three games, he and his colleagues can be quite satisfied and look forward to the upcoming European Cup games with hope.
Union will find out who they will meet in the group stage at the draw on Friday. In addition to the dreamless like Manchester United, Rönnow could also return home. For the goalkeeper, who was born in Horsens in Jutland, a game against FC Midtjylland would almost be a small derby. But, as he said on Wednesday, neither he nor his teammates think about that.
“We can’t influence the draw, we always focus on the next task. We know how difficult it will be at Schalke,” said the Union goalkeeper. And despite the rather unpleasant memories, he is actually looking forward to seeing his old club again. “I am very happy that they are back in the Bundesliga.”
