Accordingly, the 37-year-old wants to declare himself after the game of his club Ajax Amsterdam against Feyenoord Rotterdam. Huntelaar, who scored a total of 126 competitive goals for Schalke from 2010 to 2017, should protect the Royal Blues from threatened relegation. He would be the second winter returnee after Sead Kolasinac from Arsenal FC.

“It would do us incredibly good,” Schalke’s coach Christian Gross had recently declared: “If a player with the experience, this aura, this personality and these qualities would hang on to us again, it would be fantastic.”

Huntelaar had previously confirmed that Schalke had reported. “I have to think about it now,” he said. “I played six and a half years at Ajax and seven years at Schalke. They are two nice clubs.” It is like “as if you have to choose between two children”.