FC Schalke 04 are one of the most popular football clubs in Germany. In many respects you could even say they were unique. No other club can say they regularly welcome more than 60,000 fans to their home games despite the fact that they last won the league championship 45 years ago. In the 1990s Schalke did, however, lay the foundations that ensured their loyal supporters would be rewarded for their passion and devotion. In the last six years Schalke have lifted three trophies, winning the UEFA Cup in 1997, their first success in a European competition, and following this triumph with back-to-back German Cup wins in 2001 and 2002. In the Arena AufSchalke the Royal Blues also have the most modern stadium in Europe. It is a success story that began under very basic conditions.

On 4 May 1904 a group of 14- and 15-year-old boys in the coal-mining town of Gelsenkirchen founded a football club they called Westfalia Schalke. Eight years later the club merged with a gymnastics club known as Turnverein 1877 Schalke in order to gain admission to official competition. But in 1924 the footballers parted company with the gymnasts and adopted the name FC Schalke 04, changing the club colours from red and yellow to blue and white in the process.

Schalke's rise to becoming Germany's most popular football team began at this time. The Schalker Kreisel - an elegant, flowing style of football based upon a flat passing game imported from Scotland - became the trademark of a team centred on its charismatic star player, Ernst Kuzorra. Along with his brother-in-law, Fritz Szepan, who captained the side for many years, Kuzorra shaped the fortunes of the club in every respect. As club and players enjoyed strong links with the mining industry, they were nicknamed the blue-and white Knappen (Knappe being the German term for a miner who has successfully completed his apprenticeship). In keeping with this, in 1927 Schalke named their newly built stadium the Glückauf-Kampfbahn after the traditional greeting exchanged by German coal miners (Glück auf!).

In the ensuing period the Royal Blues dominated the German game. Between 1933 and 1942 they reached the final of the German championship nine times, winning on six occasions. In 1939 Schalke celebrated the highest victory ever achieved in the final of a national German competition when their intoxicating brand of passing football left Admira Vienna reeling after a 9-0 defeat. The "Schalke legend" was born, a legend that would retain its fascination for generations to come, thus laying the basis for the club's legions of fans.

After World War II, however, the Royal Blues struggled to maintain their high footballing standards, picking up only one more championship title, their last to date, when the team coached by Edi Frühwirth and captained by Bernhard Klodt beat SV Hamburg 3-0 in 1958.

When the Bundesliga came into being in 1963 Schalke were naturally among the 16 teams making up the division, but not until the end of the 1960s was a new, promising young team built around Reinhard Libuda, the legendary right-winger who was respectfully dubbed 'Stan' (after England international Sir Stanley Matthews) because of his dribbling ability. In 1972 coach Ivica Horvat's team finished runners-up in the Bundesliga, playing some magnificent attacking football along the way, and lifted the German Cup for the second time (the first was in 1937) when they defeated 1. FC Kaiserslautern 5-0.

Yet the club's involvement in a match-fixing scandal and the resulting suspensions for several leading players saw the team eventually break apart. In 1977 the team built around striker Klaus Fischer managed second spot in the league again, but in the years to come a sporting decline set in. The 1980s, in particular, brought pain and suffering for the fans as Schalke were relegated to the second division three times, in 1981, 1983 and 1988. The lean years finally came to an end in 1991 when the Royal Blues returned to the top flight, where they have remained ever since. In 1996 they qualified for a European club competition for the first time in 19 years and went on to write a modern football fairy-tale when they sensationally defeated heavy favourites Inter Milan over two legs in the UEFA Cup final. In a dramatic penalty shoot-out in the San Siro on 21 May 1997 Marc Wilmots, urged on by an incredible 30,000 travelling fans, slotted home the deciding spot-kick for coach Huub Stevens's team, a team that went down in the club's history books as the "Eurofighters" because of their superb fighting qualities.

Yet the club performed minor miracles off the field, too. First, in 1994, the Royal Blues adopted a new constitution that from then on has served as a prototype for the rest of the Bundesliga. Mirroring the practice of German public companies, a supervisory board now appoints the club's managing board. This was the basis for the most ambitious project in the club's history. In 1998 Schalke began work on the construction of a new multipurpose arena to replace the Park Stadium. Holding over 61,000 fans, the Arena AufSchalke was completed in just 32 months. The finance for the 191 million euro stadium was raised entirely from the private sector.

In 2001, with the inauguration of German football's newest theatre just weeks away, the Royal Blues rekindled memories of the golden years, finishing runners-up after what was probably the most dramatic ending to a Bundesliga season ever. As a result Schalke qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time, and they also defeated third-division Union Berlin 2-0 to lift the German Cup for the third time, a trophy they were to defend a year later with a 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

These successes were not without their effect on the club's popularity. Since opening on 13 August 2001 the Arena AufSchalke has almost always been sold out. In each of the first two seasons the club welcomed more than a million spectators to its 17 Bundesliga home fixtures alone. In the 2002 financial year the Royal Blues generated income of 118.5 million euros, making them one of the most financially powerful clubs in Europe. Moreover, Schalke now boast more than 35,000 members, the second-highest figure for a German sports club after Bayern Munich. And so, as they celebrate their centenary, Schalke can justifiably be said to have bridged the gap between tradition and the modern age.