Kevin Schade exclusive: ‘Micky van de Ven used to be — but I’m the Premier League’s fastest player now’ | OneFootball

Exclusive interview: The Brentford forward discusses Champions League hopes, World Cup dreams, and why the Bees continue to defy the odds

When Kevin Schade netted a hat-trick in Brentford’s 4-1 win over Bournemouth two days after Christmas, he became the only German player ever to have netted two trebles in the Premier League, having also struck three in a November 2024 victory over Leicester City.

His goals against Bournemouth also saw him bump Michael Ballack out of the list of Germany’s top ten most prolific scorers in the English top flight. Schade seems under-appreciated and perhaps underrated — in keeping, you’d have to say, with Brentford’s whole shtick.

It is three years since the Bees signed a skinny and raw 21-year-old Schade on loan from Freiburg for the second half of the 2022-23 season before making the move permanent that summer.

He admitted at the time he needed to become stronger. “I feel I am much stronger now, not only body-wise,” he reveals to The Standard ahead of Monday’s league game against Manchester United. “I don’t feel dead after every game anymore!”

Last year’s summer of change saw Brentford’s two best attackers, Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, and head coach Thomas Frank all leave for pastures new and by the start of the season the football world had almost unanimously concluded that the two-year precedent of all three promoted teams heading straight back down would be disrupted by the Bees falling on hard times and dropping back to the Championship.

How wrong those predictions were. The Bees are ninth in the table, with a game in hand on everyone around them, and would go sixth, into a Europa League spot, if they claim their first win at Old Trafford since 1937 on Monday.

The question of whether last summer’s upheaval left Schade fearing a season of struggle elicits a comprehensive “No” by way of response.

Kevin Schade chats withStandard Sport's Dom Smith in the dressing room at Jersey Road

The Standard

“Even before that, when Ivan Toney left, everyone said it would be difficult. But then we played even better. Maybe you can only see it from the inside, because I know all the players and what they can do. When anyone talks from the outside, you shouldn’t take it too seriously.”

But Schade understands why the outside noise was tipping Brentford to go down. “Yes, of course. Because the gaffer left and the top scorers left — but they don’t see what’s behind that.

“Igor Thiago came back, we bought Dango [Ouattara], Damsy [Mikkel Damsgaard] is still here, and we had a structure. Christian Nørgaard left as a captain [to join Arsenal] but inside we knew Nathan Collins and Mathias Jensen could do the same job. And [Jordan] Henderson came. You can learn so much from him. When it’s not going well on the pitch, he’s the one who pushes everyone to stay calm and bring back the quality.”

Yet things are going just fine on the pitch. European football is on the cards for the first time in Brentford’s history, and head coach Keith Andrews — who The Standard reported at the time had missed out on the same role at League Two MK Dons just two months before getting the Brentford gig — deserves immense credit for taking the reins from Frank and pushing on.

“It is an incredible job that he is doing,” Schade says from the dressing room at Brentford’s Jersey Road training ground. “We don’t need [bonding activities] outside [of our schedule], because we do everything here.

“With a new manager, new players, and Igor returning from a big injury, we knew it would all be new. But we tried to stick to the old things we had before — a family feel, staying connected. I hope for Europe. I think the others do as well. The main target was to stay in the league, but if you’re this high up, you can aim for new things, as high as possible. It’s really tight at the moment. Europe would be nice; Champions League would be incredible.”

European football would be nice; Champions League football would be incredible.

Kevin Schade

Schade, now 24, has earned five caps for the German national team since he arrived in west London and recalls: “I had around 25 Bundesliga games and was starting maybe every third game [for Freiburg before joining]. I’d just come back from a long injury as well.

“[Brentford] saw my potential and told me I’d need time to reach my potential. They tell you why they’re buying you, of course. For me, it was my quickness, the talent I had.”

The forward’s whole game is built around his searing, startling pace, which he once put down to running to school each day in Potsdam as a child to avoid being marked as late.

Who is the fastest player in the Brentford squad? The immediate reaction is a brief laugh, as though the question itself was absurd. “Me.” Without any doubt? “Yes.”

Norwegian defender Kristoffer Ajer is also rapid but “no one says anything about him — because he’s a defender”.

Among Premier League players, Schade is just as convinced of his advantage, which he tells The Standard “is genetic, I think”. “[Micky] van de Ven, I would say, last season was very quick. This season, I don’t think anyone [is quicker than me].”

Schade has seven league goals this season — more than Bukayo Saka and Dominik Szoboszlai — yet is still a way of his target. Collectively, Henderson has been key to driving standards and has become a conduit this season between the players and head coach Andrews or owner Matthew Benham on certain issues.

“He comes often, and sometimes we don’t even notice that he is there,” Schade says of the understated Benham. “A very calm and respectful guy, he speaks a lot with the players. Not in the dressing room or in meetings, but while we’re having lunch, just to check in. I saw Thomas [Frank] with a few other players after the Fulham game in the car park, just to check how he is.”

Kevin Schade has scored seven Premier League goals this season

Getty Images

In the camp, fellow German Vitaly Janelt is Schade’s “big brother”, and he has enjoyed training with the Belgian 19-year-old Kaye Furo, signed in January from Club Brugge, the club Brentford signed Thiago from. “He has a lot to learn and is still young but the potential is there,” Schade says of Furo.

International football is, he adds, “the biggest thing for me.”

“To play for your national team is the biggest thing you can do in football. The World Cup is the highest aim for me. I’m not thinking about it the whole time, but if you do great things with your club, this is something that comes with it.”

How about heading to a World Cup with Germany and then returning to one of Hounslow’s many bus stops ready to play European football? On balance, he’d take it.

“That would be a pretty good feeling. It is achievable.”