Seven years in the second division are enough: The dinosaur Hamburger SV is back in the Bundesliga – with a 34-year-old nobody as coach

Some football clubs are associated with symbols that, at first glance, seem to have little to do with football. At 1. FC Köln, it's the billy goat, the heraldic animal that has been a constant presence on the sidelines for decades. In various incarnations, it has witnessed numerous relegations of the storied club, which, as of this weekend, can once again feel like it's top-flight football.

In the case of Hamburger SV, it's an object that long represented a unique continuity: a stadium clock that indicated how long HSV had spent in the top division. "Always first class" – that was the motto of the Hamburg club for decades, the only founding member of the Bundesliga to remain in the elite league for so long.

But in 2018— after several failed attempts —relegation to the second division was inevitable. Since then, despite having the league's largest budget, the Hamburg team has been subjected to considerable ridicule, especially since local rivals FC St. Pauli were promoted and retained their league status that year.

Now the time in the second division is over for HSV, nicknamed "Dino" due to its long Bundesliga stint. On Saturday, they achieved promotion back with a 6-1 win against Ulm at Hamburg's Volkspark. And expectations of glorious times are likely to be revived in the north. Modesty has never been one of HSV's virtues, no matter how often they invoke Hanseatic reserve.

Hopes are based on a coach who knows his craft: At 34, Merlin Polzin is one of the youngest professional coaches ever to coach a Bundesliga team. What the Hamburg team is particularly excited about, however, is that he's one of their own. A true Hanseatic through and through, he had to take a detour via Osnabrück before returning to HSV, where he would have loved to play professionally if arthritis hadn't halted his young career. In Osnabrück, he worked as assistant coach to Daniel Thioune, who took his assistant with him when he was appointed head coach in Hamburg.

Thioune, to whom Merlin Polzin had offered to observe matches during his studies in Osnabrück, failed, as did the bizarre Tim Walter. Steffen Baumgart, who many considered a key to promotion, also struggled in Hamburg. Thus, the path was cleared for Merlin Polzin. Initially intended only as an interim solution, he performed the job so brilliantly that no one dared to call for a replacement. Sporting director Stefan Kuntz, himself an experienced coach, was wise enough not to interrupt the young man's progress.

The idea that the commitment culminated in promotion sounds like a cliché-ridden scenario. The celebrations in Hamburg, in any case, were unexpectedly large. The spontaneous pitch invasion by fans left more than a dozen injured.

It was certainly a memorable day. Investor Klaus-Michael Kühne was so thrilled that he took up his pen and wrote a poem: "HSV, I can't believe it, is first class again. We've waited seven years, and now all our dreams are coming true! The dinosaur is finally back, what joy and what great happiness, and hopefully he'll soon be a winner in our first Bundesliga again!" Kühne, whose poetic prowess could rival Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and his ode to Franz Beckenbauer ("Thank you, thank you, thank you"), still exerts considerable influence over the club. From the lines of the maritime freight entrepreneur, it's clear that HSV is still driven by vain world-class ambitions.

Anyone who wants to know why Hamburg's club likes to think big, even when there's not always reason to, only needs to take a look at HSV's history, which is extremely colorful, not only due to the bankruptcies, bad luck, and mishaps of the past decade. There was once a time when Hamburger SV was far more than just a club distinguished by its uninterrupted membership in the top division. The Hamburg team was the benchmark – not just nationally, but also in Europe.

It wasn't even the legendary Uwe Seeler's golden years that made the club a benchmark, although the striker, who died in 2022, remains HSV's quintessential player to this day. This is largely thanks to a man who, at first glance, is rarely associated with HSV: Günter Netzer. In 1977, shortly after Netzer ended his professional career with Grasshoppers in Zurich, he took over as manager of Hamburg.

Netzer wasn't actually looking for this position; rather, he wanted to publish the Hamburg stadium newspaper, just as he had done during his time as a player in Mönchengladbach. The club's then-chairman, Paul Benthien, gladly accepted the offer, but conditioned it on Netzer also taking on the managerial role. The timing was perfect. When Netzer took over, HSV had already won the European Cup Winners' Cup. There was plenty of room to build on that. And Netzer was phenomenally successful.

With an unerring eye for talent and strategy, Netzer quickly formed a top club: with the English striker Kevin Keegan, the goalkeeper Uli Stein, and the right-back Manfred Kaltz, who delivered so-called "banana crosses" from the touchline and from the half-field, which were often exploited by Horst Hrubesch, who rightfully earned the nickname "header monster" due to his incredible power.

The team's strategist was Felix Magath in midfield; he was something of an extended arm of the Austrian coaching genius Ernst Happel, whom Netzer had recruited for the coaching position after Branko Zebec. In 1983, in Athens, HSV faced the heavily favored Juventus. Magath beat Dino Zoff in the Italian goal with a lobbed shot – HSV had reached the top.

When Netzer left the club, Hamburg had displaced Bayern from the national top spot. From then on, however, things went downhill, compared to the glamorous early 1980s. Years of indifference were followed in the last decade by an almost constant battle against relegation, which they lost in 2018.

Whether this lesson teaches Hamburg humility is doubtful after the initial reactions to the promotion. They've always liked to think big in Hamburg.