Team

HSV hold first training session of 2026

On Friday afternoon (2nd January), the Rothosen started their preparations for the remaining 19 games of the ongoing Bundesliga season. There’s not much time to go before HSV’s return to competitive action in Freiburg.

Right on time for the second day of the year, the first snow of 2026 settled on HSV’s training pitches, but it didn’t stop the Rothosen from getting down to business in their first day back at training. Against the backdrop of the Alexander-Otto-Akademie, Merlin Polzin led his players out onto the Astroturf pitches for their first training session of the new year.

Squad: Suhonen returns, five absentees and trio of academy products involved

During the almost hour-long session, the head coach watched on as 23 outfield players and three goalkeepers got to work with orange footballs. Robert Glatzel and Jean-Luc Dompe, who have been training individually over the past few weeks with Warmed Omari, warmed up with the rest of the side, before meeting up with rehab coach Sebastian Capel and completing an individual session alongside teammate Omari. For the first time since his six-month loan to Östers IF, Anssi Suhonen was back in action for the Rothosen and was fully involved in the day’s training.

Back in action: Jean-Luc Dompe (right) and Anssi Suhonen were involved in the first training session of the year.

The injured Yussuf Poulsen had already finished his rehabilitation training for the day before the other players took to the pitch. U21 talents Shafiq Nandja, Moritz Reimers and Omar Megeed took part in the session alongside the first-team squad. Daniel Peretz and Miro Muheim, who both experienced weather-related problems while returning to Hamburg, will join up with the side on Saturday (3rd January), as will Alexander Rössing-Lelesiit and Nicolas Capaldo. Giorgi Gocholeishvili was absent due to illness. Jonas Meffert was allowed to miss the training session for talks about his future.

Merlin Polzin: “A really good first training session”

After an extensive warm up led by athletic coach Jan Hasenkamp, the players got used to having the ball back at their feet with some passing drills. Then, they played matches on small-scale pitches, before progressing to an eleven-a-side game with full-size goals. “We’re not concerned with the things that we can’t change. We have no influence over the weather. Today, we had a really good first training session and are looking forward to the next couple of days in Hamburg,” explained the head coach following the first session of 2026. On Saturday (3rd January) and Sunday (4th January), there are two more public training sessions on the agenda. After a day off on Monday (5th January), the preparations for the trip to Freiburg will continue on Tuesday (6th January). The game against SCF is scheduled to kick off at 14:30 CET on 10th January. The HSV players started to lay the foundations for the upcoming away clash on Friday, despite the unpleasant weather.