8 Years After Relegation Hamburg’s Young Guns Are One Win From Glory | OneFootball

Hamburger SV, or just HSV as the club is commonly known, have not won a major title since their DFB Pokal win in 1987.

Since relegation to the second tier in 2018, HSV has gone through some uncertain times trying to regain its place amongst Germany’s leading clubs, but the wait may finally be over.

An incredible eight coaches have come and gone in as many years, including club legend Horst Hrubesch, VfL Bochum coach and promotion specialist Dieter Hecking, and current Germany U20 coach Hannes Wolf.

However, things are starting to come together under 34-year-old coach Merlin Polzin, who joined from VfL Osnabrück along with Daniel Thioune. Thioune was dismissed in May 2021, and Polzin remained.

Despite having never been a head coach before, when Steffen Baumgardt, a lifelong Hamburg fan who led Paderborn to promotion in 2018, was dismissed in November, Polzin was given his opportunity initially on an interim basis for the game against Northern rivals Hansa Rostock in February.

The interim post became permanent when, despite the minimal experience of the local lad, who played in the sixth tier for Bramfelder SV, he started to build a series with the club and tie together what had been a pretty fractured side for some seasons. A side that, for many fans, felt as if it would never get back to the first tier.

Especially painful was the climax of season 22/23 on the final day at South-West German minnows SV Sandhausen, with a 1-0 in the bag fans of the 1982 European Cup winners were already on the pitch only for their celebrations to end in tears moments later with the announcement on the score board of Heidenheim’s 3-2 at Regensburg pushing the club from the Volksparkstadion back into third for the dreaded promotion play-offs, which were lost to VfB Stuttgart.

This season has been different. I am currently top with 56 points from 32 games and, most importantly, the third-best defensive record in the league, having only conceded 40 goals.

With an average age of 25, the side is young, and they are drawing the fans back in numbers. This season, the average attendance is the highest in the league at 56,200 per game, a record last seen in the Bundesliga season in 2018.

The current squad includes players who have already gained senior international caps. Ghana international Ransford Yeboah-Königsdörffer joined from Dynamo Dresden, where he won the 3. Liga title in 2021. The Berlin-born right-footed attacker, who can also play on the left wing, has played 31 games this season and scored 12 goals. At 22, he is already valued at £3m by Transfermarkt.

Dennis Hadzikadunic is a 28-time Bosnia-Herzegovina international centre-back who joined from Real Majorca in the summer of 2023. Sweden has capped him at all levels. The impressive right-footed defender benefited from his loan with Russian club FC Rostov and has become a mainstay of the side, making 25 appearances.

Left-back Miro Muheim is a 2-time Switzerland international, standing at 1.82m, he has a considerable presence and has featured in all but 6 of the current season’s games. Muheim had been tipped for great things since winning the UEFA Youth League with Chelsea in season 15/16 and is now finally showing his true potential.

Davie Selke, the 15-time U21 Germany international striker, has been responsible for an astonishing 21 goals this season. A free transfer from FC Cologne, he is one of the best bits of transfer business the club has done in recent seasons.

The 1.93m striker Robert Glatzel, eligible for Eritrea through heritage, has scored nine goals this season but, due to injury in just 13 appearances, has shown his impressive ability.

There is an array of young talent on the side, many of whom are Hamburg talents who are fast making an impression. The agile winger Jean-Luc Dompe has a bright future at the Volksparkstadion. The France U20 international has scored eight goals in his 30 games in 24/25. He is versatile and can be rotated between the left and right wings.

Central defender Valon Zumberi is a highly regarded Kosovo U21 international with great ability in the aerial game and one-on-ones. The robust 22-year-old is also very good in build-up play and is very much a product of the HSV academy, having joined the club in 2010.

Although the Hamburger SV academy, which has two training facilities, one near the Volksparkstadion and one in Norderstedt outside of Hamburg, has failed to produce an all-German championship-winning team at either U19 or U17 level, it has been doing outstanding work at attracting top talents in recent seasons. Many of these will find their way to the senior side in the coming seasons, hopefully in the Bundesliga.

All eyes are now on Saturday’s game against relegation-threatened SSV Ulm. A win should see ‘Der Dino’, the club’s nickname due to being the only club not relegated between 1963 and 2018, conclude the season with at least a second-place finish.

The climax of an exceptional but also nerve-wracking 2. Bundesliga campaign, in which the club has yo-yoed between first and seventh, could see the Northern club crowned champions on match day 34.

Once more, like in season 22/23, the destination will be the South, this time at 2-time German champions Greuther Fürth, with a win on Saturday against ‘Die Spatzen’ (Ulm), this time nothing should stand in the way of the 6-time Deutsche Meister.