New sports director in Hamburg
Kuntz is supposed to turn things around at HSV
May 21, 2024, 6:42 p.m
After missing out on promotion to the Bundesliga, HSV made a far-reaching personnel decision and replaced sports director Jonas Boldt with Stefan Kuntz. The 1996 European champion, long-time successful coach of the German U21 national team, will take over the job with immediate effect.
Jonas Boldt’s time as sports director of the second division soccer team Hamburger SV is over. In the late afternoon, the club announced that the supervisory board was prematurely terminating the 42-year-old’s contract, which runs until 2025. Apparently Boldt, who had been in office since 2019, was no longer expected to finally bring the club back into the Bundesliga. Stefan Kuntz will be his successor.
“We have completed our very detailed analysis process and have come to the decision that after missing promotion for the sixth time in a row, we need and want a new sporting impulse,” said Supervisory Board boss Michael Papenfuß. “We know about Jonas’ achievements, and we are very grateful for the work he has done, even outside of the core topic of sport. Jonas has built a lot here.”
Boldt’s prominent successor is already ready: Ex-national player and former U21 national coach Stefan Kuntz will take over the position and will be introduced this week. He should finally get the team back to the first floor on the seventh attempt since relegation in 2018. “Stefan comes from football, has management experience and will find structures and responsibilities that have been established here and should develop them in a focused manner,” said Papenfuß. The pay-TV broadcaster Sky first reported on the personnel change. Kuntz had previously confirmed discussions with HSV at the “ran Bundesliga web show”. The 1996 European champion was already a candidate for the HSV coaching position last December.
Bold speaks of “disappointment” and “nice time”
One of Kuntz’s first decisions will be whether to go into the coming season with Steffen Baumgart as coach. He also has to quickly clarify whether top performers such as goalscorer Robert Glatzel, the Slovakian midfielder Laszlo Benes or Ludovit Reis can be retained. Tasks that Boldt actually wanted to solve. “It was a challenging and beautiful time in which we moved a lot, fought and I also learned a lot,” he said when he said goodbye. “In addition to the still great disappointment that we didn’t succeed in promotion, there remains a positive overall feeling.”
Finally, he was confident that he would continue to be in charge of sports at the traditional club in the future. He has been criticized for some time. In the season that had just ended, the club missed promotion for the sixth time as fourth in the table. There have been five unsuccessful attempts under Boldt’s direction since he was introduced as Ralf Becker’s successor on May 24, 2019. Discussions had already been held with Felix Magath and Jörg Schmadtke. HSV icon Magath was unable to convince the supervisory board, Schmadtke opted out.
During his time in charge, Boldt brought in a total of five coaches – Dieter Hecking, Daniel Thioune, interim coach Horst Hrubesch, Tim Walter and Steffen Baumgart – to help him achieve the mission of promotion. In the season that just ended, the Hanseatics were in the relegation zone or better on 25 of the 34 match days. In the end, they finished fourth with 58 points, for the fourth time in six years in the second division.
Too little return for HSV on the pitch
At the beginning of his term in office, Boldt led Fußball AG together with CFO Frank Wettstein and CEO Bernd Hoffmann. After Hoffmann was released in March 2020, Boldt and Wettstein took over the leadership. Wettstein left HSV in January 2022. He was followed by the controversial Thomas Wüstefeld until September 28, 2022 and Eric Huwer since January 1, 2023. There were also disputes over jurisdiction that led to the labor court with the former sports director Michael Mutzel. HSV and Mutzel then reached an out-of-court agreement in September 2022.
Financially and in terms of fan popularity, HSV has been going uphill in recent years. The 2022/23 financial year ended with a profit of 7.8 million euros, and the Volksparkstadion was sold out nine times in the 2023/24 season. On average, 55,906 fans attended the games – an all-time record for the club.
But on the pitch, the kicking staff brought in by Boldt often failed to deliver. This season, HSV had to watch as northern rivals FC St. Pauli and Holstein Kiel passed them with smaller stadiums and smaller budgets and were promoted to the Bundesliga. Boldt was also criticized for holding on to Tim Walter for too long. During the winter break he expressed his confidence in the coach. In February there was the separation and the signing of Steffen Baumgart. It was the last attempt to save the season. Vain.