Erik
Stoffelshaus

Serving as right hand to Andreas Müller, Head of Football and Executive Member of the Board, during one of the most celebrated chapters in Schalke's modern history. The 2006/07 season saw Die Königsblauen finish runners-up in the Bundesliga — two points behind champions Stuttgart. The following season brought a historic milestone: Schalke progressed past the Champions League group stage for the first time in club history, eliminating Porto on penalties in the round of 16 before facing a Barcelona side featuring Henry, Xavi, Iniesta, and Puyol in the quarterfinals. Working across all operational and front office matters alongside a richly international squad representing eleven nations — Germany (Neuer, Kurányi, Ernst, Westermann, Asamoah, Özil), Brazil (Bordon, Rafinha, Lincoln), Turkey (Hamit & Halil Altıntop), Croatia (Rakitić), Serbia (Krstajić), Georgia (Kobiashvili), Denmark (Lövenkrands, Larsen), Uruguay (Rodríguez, Varela, Sánchez), Peru (Farfán), and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bajramović).

A front office role at the heart of one of Europe's most respected youth academies — focused on strategic operations and programme management rather than on-pitch coaching. Responsibilities spanned the structural development of academy programmes, administrative leadership, and building the organisational framework within which exceptional talent could be systematically identified, developed, and progressed toward the professional game.

Began the Schalke career as coach of the U11 and subsequently U12 teams, laying the groundwork for a long and successful association with the club's legendary youth development system.

Full responsibility for the entire sports department — overseeing both the professional first team and the academy structure. Led transfer strategy, squad planning, and talent identification at an international level, operating across multiple markets simultaneously in a high-pressure, results-driven environment. Also responsible for the founding and development of Lokomotiv Moscow's women's football team, building the programme from inception.

A richly multinational squad representing eleven nations — with Lokomotiv players competing across six nations at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia: Russia (Fedor Smolov, Aleksei & Anton Miranchuk), Portugal (Manuel Fernandes, Eder), Peru (Jefferson Farfán — Peru's first World Cup in 36 years), Poland (Grzegorz Krychowiak, Maciej Rybus), Croatia (Vedran Ćorluka — finalists), and Nigeria (Bryan Idowu). Further internationals included Benedikt Höwedes (Germany), Saba Kvirkvelia (Georgia), Ari, Guilherme & Igor Denisov (Russia), Nemanja Pejčinović (Serbia), Taras Mykhalyk (Ukraine), and Vitaliy Denisov (Uzbekistan).