Is Demme really coming to Hertha?
When the star hairdresser announces a transfer
03.07.2024, 08:26
For over a year now, there has been a rumor that Hertha BSC wants to sign midfielder Diego Demme. There are always new developments, but nothing concrete has happened. Now the time has come, the 32-year-old is apparently joining the second division football club.
But this time it’s real. The rumour mill around Hertha BSC is not just running hot, it’s boiling: Is Diego Demme really moving to the second division football club in Berlin? The barometer of the rumour portal Transfermarkt.de is at 82 percent. Now everything can happen very quickly, the evidence has become more than solid. Many questions arise: Has the 32-year-old already been to training? And: What does Berlin’s star hairdresser, Abbas Berjawi, have to do with it?
But first things first: The story of Demme and Hertha BSC began almost exactly thirteen months ago, and it has become a running joke among fans ever since. On May 26, 2023 reported Sky reporter Lisa de Ruiter said that the Berlin club wanted to sign the defensive midfielder. “However, the club does not want (and cannot) make any final plans until the license is there,” she continued. But: According to Sky information, Demme was already in Berlin. At least.
The news came one day before Hertha BSC’s last Bundesliga match against VfL Wolfsburg. The Berlin team had been relegated the previous week, and Keven Schlotterbeck, who was still from Bochum, headed them into the second division in the fourth minute of stoppage time. It was the logical end of a time in which Hertha BSC had repeatedly avoided relegation: first they had narrowly finished 14th in the table, a year later they were relegated against HSV and then last in the table last summer. The 1:1 draw in their home Olympic Stadium also marked their descent into an uncertain future.
Economic problems
For a long time it was unclear whether Hertha would even be allowed to compete in the second division. The tug-of-war over the license dragged on for months. Four years after former investor Lars Windhorst pumped 374 million euros into the club, Hertha was almost no longer able to operate financially. The rescue – at least in the short term – was the new investor 777 and the postponed repayment of a 40 million euro bond.
But not all problems could be solved in this way. The club was still in the “intensive care unit” financially, it was said at the time. Things are a little better now: for the first time in years, income covers expenses. But the next few seasons will decide what happens next with Hertha. Every year in the second division reduces TV revenue, with every year the squad has to be slimmed down further, and with every year the likelihood of promotion becomes less.
Back to Demme: On June 12, 2023, Hertha got the green light from the DFL for the license, and on the same day there was new news about Demme. Transfer expert Florian Plettenberg tweeted (that’s what it was called back then) that there was a “verbal agreement” with the player, but not with his club SSC Napoli. On June 27, it was then announced that the Italians were interested in Hertha’s Lucas Tousart. A swap was possible, reported “Pletti”. But: Further negotiations were planned. In August it was then announced that Demme wanted to come and also become captain straight away. Then at the end of the month the role returned: the then 31-year-old had rejected a transfer after all.
The Demme (non) transfer also showed that in the new world of football, transfers are becoming more and more of an event. When Harry Kane, the captain of the English national team, moved to FC Bayern, there were new updates almost every second last summer. More than 28,000 people followed the private plane that brought him to Munich on a tracking site. The interest in these topics is huge, and there is now a whole new breed of transfer journalists who are constantly publishing new status updates.
Things went quiet in Berlin after last summer. Hertha had to make do without Demme because he was too expensive, and the then coach Pal Dardai didn’t have the squad together until the beginning of September because of the license chaos and uncertainty. But the new season was already underway, so the start was completely wrong. Berlin’s midfield remained a work in progress until the end of the season. Dardai tried out numerous combinations. In the winter, sports director Benjamin Weber made adjustments and loaned Barkok Ayman from Mainz 05. Hertha pulled itself together, even dreaming of promotion for a few seconds towards the end of the season, but ended up in ninth place in the table.
Experience and Leadership
And what has Demme actually been doing all this time? Well, he hasn’t really played much football. He played three games in Naples last season. And in the championship season a year before, he only played seven games. He doesn’t really have any match practice. German football fans know him mainly from his time in Leipzig, where he played 217 games across all leagues as a defensive midfielder for Rasenballsport. Leipzig received a total of ten million euros from Naples in the winter of 2020.
Now he is moving on a free transfer, as he has been without a club since July 1st. As the “Kicker” reports, he will earn significantly less at cash-strapped Hertha than he did in Italy. The “ball-winner and sweeper” also brings “a large portion of experience and leadership” with him, it continues. This time, Hertha BSC and new coach Christian Fiel are renovating the central midfield early on. The contract of tackler Deyovaisio Zeefuik was surprisingly extended. Kevin Sessa also came from Heidenheim and the Berliners snapped up the ex-Bayern talent Michaël Cuisance. Demme is supposed to help the capital club with the “Berlin way”, i.e. building on its own talent.
Whether he can really give the team that remains to be seen. According to several media reports, the transfer is in its final stages. This week, months of transfer wrangling will finally end. Fans claim to have recognized him on X in training pictures from Tuesday. A few days ago, Demme posted an Instagram story at Rosenthaler Platz in Berlin. And, the real final confirmation that it will happen soon: Berlin star hairdresser Abbas has already cut his hair and captioned it with a “Welcome” on Instagram. So this time it really is time.