Schalke 04

FC Schalke 04 are one of Germany's most passionately supported clubs, a working-class institution from the Ruhr valley mining town of Gelsenkirchen whose blue and white home shirt has been one of German football's most iconic sights for over a century. The Knappen (Miners) have won a UEFA Cup, multiple German Championships, and given the world some of the finest talents in German football history, from Klaus Fischer to Manuel Neuer.

Founded in 1904 and based in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the club play at the Veltins-Arena. Their honours include 7 German Championship titles (the last in 1958), 5 DFB-Pokal wins, and 1 UEFA Cup (1997). Nicknamed Die Knappen (The Miners) for the Ruhr's industrial heritage.

The royal blue home shirt is Schalke in a single colour. That deep, consistent blue has been worn through multiple decades of Bundesliga campaigns and European nights, and its connection to the Ruhr's working-class identity gives it a weight beyond aesthetics. The Adidas kits of the late 1990s, worn during the UEFA Cup-winning season and subsequent Champions League campaigns, are among the most cherished in the club's modern history. The blue home shirt has remained a constant through many turbulent seasons and a defining symbol of one of Germany's great football communities.