Fabio Baldé: HSV's biggest sale since Onana | OneFootball

In recent years, HSV did not generate particularly high transfer income. The sale of Fabio Baldé became a positive exception.

Racing Strasbourg is transferring seven million euros to Hamburg’s account. Possible bonus payments will be added on top. HSV last received such a high sum in the summer of 2021, even though transfer fees have exploded in recent years, especially due to the flood of money from England on the market. Back then, Amadou Onana also left the Hanseatic club after just one season — which, because of كورونا, was even played without spectators — for France, joining OSC Lille, who invested seven million euros.

Onana has long since moved on from Ligue 1, taking the next step after just one very impressive season to Everton, who paid around 40 million euros for his services. Two years later came the next move within the Premier League, this time to Aston Villa, who shelled out 60 million euros. While Onana has since crowned himself a Europa League champion, HSV’s earnings nearly doubled to a total of 13.57 million euros thanks to various sell-on clauses.

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HSV: Transfer revenues have been a rarity lately

Aside from that, transfer revenues remained very limited. Players such as Ewerton, Khaled Narey, Tim Leibold, Moritz Heyer, or last winter Jonas Meffert were often even let go with a severance payment because of their very high salaries by second-division standards, so they could join another club. In the 2020s, only four professionals left the Hanseatic club for three million euros or more.

The move of Ludovit Reis to Club Brugge brought in a respectable six million euros. Here too, HSV included a percentage sell-on clause in the deal. But they ended up empty-handed. The former promotion hero failed to establish himself with the Belgian champions and, rather surprisingly, moved on a free transfer to northern rivals Werder Bremen yesterday, Friday.

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Nevertheless, Reis is considered one of the very few positive examples of recent years in which a talented player was signed young for little money and, after developing well, sold on for a respectable fee. In Baldé’s case, the transfer profit was even significantly higher, as he had come through Hamburg’s youth system since 2021 before establishing himself in the first-team squad.

Otto Stange, Louis Lemke — who has already looked remarkably composed in pre-season matches for a player still only 16 — and Shafiq Nandja are on the same path. The trio not only represents improved youth development, but also a clearer pathway to the top, for which Merlin Polzin’s coaching staff is responsible. In Germany, SC Freiburg has repeatedly shown that the approach of turning homegrown talents into key players and leaders or selling them on for a hefty fee can bear fruit. If HSV were one day to return to that club’s current sporting level, it would mean a great many right decisions had been made.

Photo: IMAGO

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.