It was a strange day on Schalke. On 5 October 1996, Schalke hosted Karlsruher SC and lost 1–0. Normally that would have been all. But the stadium was silent. No rallying cries, no trumpeter in the Nordkurve calling the famous “attack”. Barely 27,860 spectators were scattered through the old 1974 World Cup arena. It felt ghostly.
