Hamburger SV: The long continued decline of a German football institution

This week Hamburger SV fired Steffen Baumgart, adding yet another chapter to the club's long decline. But it could have been all so different if they had picked Jürgen Klopp for the job back in 2008.

Imagine an alternative universe in which Jürgen Klopp had shown up shaved and clean-cut to a job interview with the bosses from Hamburger SV. Perhaps HSV would now be the biggest club in Germany, rivaling Bayern Munich, while adding another Champions League trophy to the cabinet.

That scenario is less wild than you think. In 2008, Hamburger SV sporting director Dietmar Beiersdorfer met with Klopp, and the two were close to an agreement. Klopp aside, HSV was also in talks with Fred Rutten, Christian Gross, and Bruno Labbadia—more on him in a moment.

Following that meeting, HSV scouts followed Klopp, who was approaching the end of his time at Mainz. According to a report by Bild, they noted everything, from his clothing style to whether he was on time and his general behavior towards the public. The verdict? Klopp wasn’t a clean enough profile for highbrow HSV.

How close was the deal? Klopp and his wife had already decided to move to Hamburg and looked at several apartments. However, when he learned about his negative scouting dossier, Klopp immediately shut down negotiations with the North German giants. The HSV bosses, in turn, didn’t like how he dressed, his beard and found his jokes at press conferences unprofessional.