Season

“Indescribable” - HSV celebrate their two promotion-winning teams at the Rathausmarkt

Hamburger SV were able to celebrate two promotions this season, with both the men’s and the women’s teams returning to the top flight. Both teams celebrated the achievement together with Hamburg’s first mayor Peter Tschentscher and more than 70,000 fans at the Rathausmarkt.

The Rathausmarkt in Hamburg was jam-packed on Monday (19th May), as HSV threw a massive promotion party. Both the club’s men’s and women’s teams were welcomed to city hall by Hamburg’s first mayor Peter Tschentscher (pictured with HSV head coach Merlin Polzin), before heading out to the balcony to loud cheers from the nearly 70,000 people in attendance. Fans had packed into the city centre to celebrate the historic achievement of their club: never before have a men’s and women’s team from the same club managed to earn promotion to the Bundesliga in the same season.

The players received loud cheers when they stepped out onto the balcony around 18:00 CEST. “It was a great atmosphere,” said HSV’s board member for sport, Stefan Kuntz. “It started with a warm welcome at city hall followed by the celebrations together with the fans with both teams. These moments proved how much the HSV fans have been burning to get promoted. What our women and Merlin Polzin’s men’s team have been able to achieve is simply fantastic.” Polzin and the rest of his coaching staff were also duly celebrated by the fans in attendance.

“It’s indescribable – I’m at a loss for words to describe how I’m feeling,” said Polzin. “I’m very grateful to get to experience this moment, it’s one that will stay with me. The team deserved to have this moment, and so do all the fans, because we were only able to achieve our goal by sticking together as a club.” After the public celebrations, the teams boarded two buses that paraded them through the city. The streets were packed with countless more fans, who transformed the city centre into a seas of blue, white and black.