Ever since the Colombian attacker Jhon Duran said after his January transfer from the Premier League to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia that he had been following his new club's games "since he was a child" and that he was realising a dream with the move, it has been clear that declarations of a genuine connection between club and player run the risk of becoming ridiculous these days.
Timon Wellenreuther, on the other hand, would have every reason to flaunt his attachment. Even today, almost ten years after his departure from Schalke 04, the goalkeeper still says that he is still "a bit of a Schalke man". Yet the realities of the second-division club and the Champions League goalkeeper could not be further apart.
First golden moment at the Bernabeu
Thanks to a good run of results, the Royal Blues have left their relegation worries behind them, which must sound like a bad joke to Wellenreuther. Back then, when the then 19-year-old young goalkeeper made his debut, the reality in Gelsenkirchen was very different.
After making his professional debut in the Bundesliga in February 2015, Wellenreuther became part of arguably Schalke's greatest victory in recent history almost overnight. A real miracle: the Revierklub, a European regular at the time, defeated Real Madrid 4-3 in the Champions League at the legendary Bernabeu Stadium.
Even though a 2-0 first-leg defeat at home meant that it was not enough to progress, that evening will remain unforgettable, and not just for the young Timon.
But Wellenreuther's career did not follow a straight line. The goalkeeper initially had to queue up behind Ralf Fahrmann, before going on loan to Mallorca in the Spanish second division in the 2015/16 season. Even after his return, the Karlsruhe native did not make the leap to becoming a regular, spending an entire year with the reserves in the regional league.
Finally, the son of former Karlsruhe SC president Ingo Wellenreuther decided on a change of scenery. In 2017, he signed for Willem II in the Dutch Eredivisie where he established himself as a regular despite a difficult period. After a stopover at RSC Anderlecht, Feyenoord became aware of the then 26-year-old in 2022 and secured his services as a replacement for Justin Bijlow.
Penalty heroics in the Champions League
Wellenreuther made several appearances in his first season and celebrated the Eredivisie title at the start of summer - the first professional trophy in the German's career. As Bijlow is also out for a long time this campaign with several injuries, the goalkeeper has already made 33 appearances this season.
The high point of his career came in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, when Wellenreuther saved a penalty from Piotr Zielinski against Inter Milan to keep his team in the game. It was another moment in which Wellenreuther, who had previously been largely unknown internationally, capitalised on the situation perfectly.
While the 29-year-old is causing a furore in the top flight, he has not forgotten his roots.
"I like to compare it to Schalke: Rotterdam and Gelsenkirchen are typical working-class towns, and you can tell that from the support of the fans. They love and live for their club," Wellenreuther recently said in an interview with Sport Bild.
You don't need pathetic oaths of loyalty to play your way into the hearts of the fans. It takes determination, hard work and a nose for the right moment. It will be interesting to see how many more times he can prove this in his career.