Kevin Keegan (1977 for € 1.17m from Liverpool)
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A transfer the likes of which the Bundesliga had never experienced before: HSV caused a sensation when Kevin Keegan was signed in the summer of 1977. The ambitious Hamburgers, who for their part have just won the European Cup Winners’ Cup, paid a transfer fee of 2.3 million D-Marks (equivalent to around 1.17 Million euros) to Liverpool FC. But the captain of the English national team, like the entire team, disappointed in the first season and was also homesick. That should change in the second season, when “Mighty Mouse” scored HSV with 17 goals for the first championship title since the Bundesliga was founded. Keegan, who was twice named Europe’s best footballer, was by then the idol of all fans – and has remained so to this day. He left HSV in 1980 after losing the final in the national championship cup and missing the championship in the direction of Southampton.
Rodolfo Cardoso (1997 for 1.5 million euros from Bremen)
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It was only 20 years later that Keegan’s internal transfer record was to be broken – and then twice within a few months. At first it was Rodolfo Cardoso who cost more when he signed up in May 1997. 1.5 million euros were transferred to the competition from Bremen after the Argentine playmaker had previously completed a season on loan at the Volksparkstadion. In the following winter, the injury-prone Argentine was supposed to be given back, but there was no club that wanted to pay the transfer fee requested by HSV. So it went home twice on loan, before five seasons in the jersey with the diamond followed from 1999. Cardoso has been a coach at the club since 2005, with interruptions.
Anthony Yeboah (September 1997 for € 2.15 million from Leeds)
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On September 24th, the Argentine was finally replaced by Anthony Yeboah after a long squabble. After 34 months, the two-time top scorer from his time at Eintracht Frankfurt returned to the Bundesliga for a transfer fee of 2.15 million euros. The reason for the delayed signing of the Ghanaian from Leeds United, about whose true age there had always been speculation, was his tax debts with the Hanau tax office, which he had to pay before his return.
In terms of sport, the Hamburg’s record investment did not pay off at first; in his first year on the Elbe, the attacker disappointed most of the time. That changed in the 1998/99 season when he scored 14 goals in the Bundesliga. The top earner also impressed the following season before things went downhill again. Nevertheless, Yeboah stayed until the end of 2001 and in the meantime caused a stir by arbitrarily extending his expiring contract by one year after the club had not previously done so. At the turn of the year 2001/02, it was finally agreed to terminate the contract prematurely.
Marcel Ketelaer (2000 for EUR 2.8 million from Gladbach)
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Even before that, in the summer of 2000, HSV broke its spending record twice again. After moving into the Champions League, Marcel Ketelaer, who had previously shone in the 2nd Bundesliga at Borussia Mönchengladbach and was considered one of the greatest talents in German football at the time, was signed up. However, the winger was unable to meet the high expectations. Ketelaer only stayed in Hamburg for two seasons and was unable to secure a regular place during this time. Initially on loan, the winger finally returned to his training club in Gladbach, followed by a permanent transfer in 2003. Of the transfer fee of 2.8 million euros that was once paid, only 650,000 euros flowed back to HSV.
Milan Fukal (2000 for 2.9 million euros from Sparta Prague)
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The move from Milan Fukal, in contrast to Ketelaer, was under bad omens from the start. The Czech hesitated a long time before he agreed to transfer to Germany and initially refused on the grounds that he did not want to expose his pregnant wife to a move. At the end of August the national player finally agreed, HSV transferred 2.9 million euros to the financially troubled Sparta Prague and supposedly found the reinforcement they were looking for on the defensive. But Fukal was never really happy in Hamburg, for a long time bore the stamp of a bad purchase and was only a regular in the 2002/03 season, which the club finished fourth. In summer 2004, like his predecessor, he moved on to Mönchengladbach.
Jörg Albertz (2001 for EUR 5 million from the Glasgow Rangers)
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Great expectations that were not met – this also applies to the next record transfer in HSV history. Jörg Albertz showed strong performances in the Hanseatic city between 1993 and 1996, which he could not build on after five years with the Glasgow Rangers. In his first season after his return, the 5 million purchase was still a regular when he was fit, before he was retired by then coach Kurt Jara after four appearances in the second season. “I left when I was in Hamburg for the first time, this time I was expelled,” he said when he left in March 2003 and was the first German professional to move to Shanghai Shenhua in China. He is said to have received a severance payment of EUR 1.3 million for the termination of the contract.
Bernardo Romeo (January 2002 for € 5.62 million from San Lorenzo)
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With Bernardo Romeo, Albertz’s successor came to Hamburg in January 2002 in terms of record replacement. The striker from Argentina showed his qualities in front of the opposing goal from the start, scored a total of 45 goals in 88 games during his time at HSV and is one of the most effective goalscorers in the club’s history with a rate of 0.51. However, the goalgetter also often dived, then had hardly any game shares and a poor duel rate. In the first half of the 2004/05 season he finally lost his regular place, new coach Thomas Doll also said that Romeo would not fit into his system. So it was first on loan to Mallorca in winter, followed by the final separation in summer 2005. Osasuna paid a transfer fee of 1 million euros for the services of the eliminated striker.
Vincent Kompany (2006 for 10.5 million euros from Anderlecht)
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When Vincent Kompany was brought in in the summer of 2006 for the record sum of 10.5 million euros, the then Champions League participant seemed to have landed a real transfer coup. At just 20 years of age, the defender had already played more than 100 professional games for RSC Anderlecht and was considered a much sought-after top talent internationally. After bad luck with an injury in his first season, coach Huub Stevens increasingly used him in defensive midfield in the second season, which the Belgian didn’t really like. There were then major differences and public accusations the following summer because of his participation in the Olympic Games. Kompany was only allowed to play at the beginning of the tournament in Beijing and had to return to the club against his will early. His departure shortly before the end of the transfer came as a surprise to many. The nouveau riche Manchester City grabbed where Kompany, who, according to the then President Bernd Hoffmann, did not meet expectations in Hamburg, became a club legend in the following years.
Rafael van der Vaart (2012 for 13 million euros from Tottenham)
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The majority of the HSV fans were delighted when their club brought the “prodigal son” Rafael van der Vaart back to the Elbe on Deadline Day in summer 2012 with the help of investor Klaus-Michael Kühne. The Dutch playmaker had already delighted fans between 2005 and 2008 and should put the club back on the road to success after a disappointing season. An undertaking that the 13 million dollar purchase and his teammates only managed in the first year, before two years of tremors in the relegation games against relegation followed. Increasingly, the star player’s advancing age was noticeable, his contract was no longer extended in the summer of 2015 and van der Vaart went to Real Betis Sevilla on a free transfer. He later described his return to HSV as “not the smartest step”.
Filip Kostic (2016 for 14 million euros from Stuttgart)
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For the last time, HSV broke its own transfer record in the summer of 2016 to break Filip Kostic away from VfB Stuttgart, who had just been relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga. In the poker for the services of the Serbian winger, they prevailed against VfL Wolfsburg, among others, but in the end had to transfer 14 million euros to the Swabians. Kostic did not fully do justice to the high transfer fee, in 65 competitive games he only managed 15 direct goals. After Hamburg’s historic first relegation in 2018, he quickly made it clear that he wanted to leave the club and even refused to be called into the squad at the beginning of the season. The search for a buyer who brought in a similarly high transfer fee was tough – and ultimately ended with a big minus from HSV’s point of view. Initially loaned to Frankfurt for 600,000 euros, Kostic flourished there, so that the previously agreed purchase option of 6 million euros turned out to be a bargain for the Hessians.
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