Daniel Thioune takes over at Hamburg

Daniel Thioune is the new Hamburg coach, the 2.Bundesliga club announced on Monday.

Thioune, who has signed a two-year deal, takes over from Dieter Hecking, who left Hamburg by mutual consent last week after just a year in the job following the club's disastrous end to the season, which saw them miss out on promotion back to the top-flight.

The 45-year-old becomes the first black coach in Hamburg's history and joins from Osnabrück, where he became the first German-born head coach in any of Germany's top three leagues. Thioune counts Julian Nagelsmann among his contemporaries with the pair having studied on the same football coaching course together.

"I've seen a few more hurdles than others," Thioune said last year in an interview with DW. "The color of my skin might have played a role in not getting over some hurdles but whether or not that's true I don't know.

"I'm a clear decision maker. I would rather put my neck on the line for something I did rather than something I didn't do," he adds.

The mission for Thioune is clear: get Hamburg promoted. The six-time German champions have been wallowing in the second tier since 2018, but have turned to a man that led Osnabrück to the third division title in 2018-19, earning him the coach of the year award, before keeping them up in 2019-20.

"We want to develop individual players and thus our team as a whole,” Hamburg sporting director Jonas Boldt said.

"With Daniel Thioune, we have brought in a coach who has steadily developed a team in Osnabrück with manageable means."

Thioune becomes Hamburg's fourth coach in two years, but is relishing the opportunity: "For me, the job at HSV is a great challenge that I want to tackle with a lot of hard work, teamwork and heart.”

mds/mp