Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. , commonly known as Hamburger SV, Hamburg or HSV , is a German sport club based in Hamburg, its largest branch being its football department. Although the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three earlier clubs, it officially traces its origin to 29 September 1887 when the first of the predecessors, SC Germania, was founded. Until 2018 when the team were relegated for the first time in history, HSV's football team had the distinction of being the only team that had played continuously in the top tier of the German football league system since the founding of the club at the end of World War I. It was consequently also the only team that had played in every season of the Bundesliga since its foundation in 1963.
HSV has won the German national championship six times, the DFB-Pokal three times and the League Cup twice. The team's most successful period was from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s when, in addition to several domestic honours, they won the 1976–77 European Cup Winners' Cup and the 1982–83 European Cup. The outstanding players of this period were Horst Hrubesch, Manfred Kaltz, and Felix Magath, all of whom were regulars in the German National Team. To date, HSV's last major trophy was the 1986–87 DFB-Pokal.
HSV play their home games at the Volksparkstadion in Bahrenfeld, a western district of Hamburg. The club colours are officially blue, white and black but the home kit of the team is white jerseys and red shorts. The team's most common nickname is "die Rothosen" (the Red Shorts). As it is one of Germany's oldest clubs, it is also known as der Dinosaurier (the Dinosaur). HSV have rivalries with Werder Bremen, with whom they contest the Nordderby, and Hamburg-based FC St. Pauli, with whom they contest the Hamburg derby.
HSV is notable in football as a grassroots organisation with youth development a strong theme. The club had a team in the Women's Bundesliga from 2003 to 2012 but it was demoted to Regionalliga level because of financial problems. Other club departments include badminton, baseball, basketball, bowling, boxing, cricket, darts, ice hockey, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, handball, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation exercises. These departments represent about 10% of the club membership. HSV is one of the biggest sports clubs in Germany with over 84,000 members in all its departments and stated by Forbes to have been among the 20 largest football clubs in the world.
Why Hamburg?
To be honest I've enjoyed my York save but I also fancied a save where I don't rely on young players being released from bigger clubs and fancied a different country and I have always enjoyed German football and to be able to try and get a club with such a big history back to the top will be something special
Hamburg is a club that should be playing at a higher level, than in the second tier of German football. They are six time winners of the German top flight, they’ve won the DFB-Pokal success on three occasions, lifted the Cup Winners Cup in 1977 & even won the European Cup in 1983.
However, their last success was a Pokal in 1987 so it’s safe to say, the team is starved of silverware.
Perhaps more famously though, they proudly stood as the only Bundesliga ever-present – never having suffered relegation. That distinction though, was wiped out in the summer of 2018, when a decade long decline finally caught up with the club & they fell through the trap door. They are now in their 4th season in the second flight and I plan to make it their last as we look to get back to the top of European football
