From top scorer to Bundesliga breakthrough? Stange just wants to ‘play’ | OneFootball

While many HSV professionals had plenty of free time this summer, Otto Stange represented Germany at the U19 European Championship and returned to the team stronger for it.

The tournament went almost perfectly for the Hamburg academy product. Stange scored four goals in four appearances and played a key role in helping his side reach the final. There, Spain proved a size too big (0:2). Surprisingly, the striker himself was taken off after 65 minutes, but afterward he could at least celebrate winning the Golden Boot, awarded to the top scorer of the U19 Euros.

“The trip was cool, it was fun with the boys. Overall, it was a great experience: playing in a European Championship with Germany is something huge, even at youth level,” Stange, who received a very warm welcome from those in charge, summed up in an interview with HSV’s club media. In addition, as runners-up, Germany qualified for the 2027 U20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

Photo: IMAGO

For HSV: Stange skips a longer vacation

Stange also wants to be part of that. Before then, however, his focus is on HSV. After only around a week and a half of vacation, he rejoined the team, which is currently at its training camp in Oberlängenfeld, Austria. “Hamburg and a few days off were nice too, of course, but playing football is always better than just chilling and doing nothing,” the right-footer emphasized, adding with regard to his first completed training session: “I missed being out on the pitch. Today it was pure joy again right away!”

He could get playing time as early as Saturday (1:30 p.m., live on the HSV YouTube channel) in the friendly against 1. FC Heidenheim. Stange – who was used in ten Bundesliga matches last season despite a six-month loan spell at Elversberg – wants to earn more minutes in the coming weeks: “Playing. I just want to play as much as possible. Hopefully the rest will come naturally for me, but that’s my very first goal.”

Nur die Raute – by HSV fans for HSV fans

To do that, the Hamburg-born forward will need to keep developing despite his major success at youth level, and he seems well aware of that: “In the Bundesliga, you simply have to play more clearly and more maturely. I’m on the way to doing that better and better.” With the injury-prone Yussuf Poulsen and new signing Patson Daka, who recently went through a difficult spell at Leicester City, HSV currently only have two other natural strikers available. The club is planning to bring in another option, but Stange, energized by the U19 Euros, is still starting from a very promising position.

Photo: IMAGO

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