“For all the excitement”: Favé plays down HSV youth hype! | OneFootball

Louis Lemke, Shafiq Nandja, Otto Stange or Fabio Baldé: The past season delivered numerous positive stories from the club’s own youth ranks for HSV fans.

Several homegrown players picked up their first Bundesliga minutes and fueled hopes that even more talents could make the jump to the senior team in the future. But despite all the excitement, head of youth development and assistant coach Loic Favé is urging patience.

In an interview on HSV.de, the sporting director of the youth academy described the youngsters’ debuts as “positive feedback for the entire campus,” but also made it clear: “For all the euphoria, it has to be said that none of the four players has fully established himself yet.”

Baldé received the most playing time, logging a total of 440 minutes on the pitch. “All of them still need to keep working on their individual areas in order to take the next steps,” Favé explained. After all, the Bundesliga is “an even higher benchmark” than the 2. Bundesliga was in previous years.

Photo: IMAGO

Favé praises HSV jewel: “His development was striking”

Even so, Favé believes HSV’s youth development is on the right track. “We have raised the connection between the campus and the senior team to a good level,” he said. The homegrown players’ first Bundesliga experiences are exactly the moments “we work for every single day.”

As a prime example, Favé highlighted center-back Shafiq Nandja. He said Nandja had “rewarded himself for his development. His progress in training and in matches was striking,” Favé emphasized. Even so, the same applies to Nandja: “But this is only the beginning.”

Louis Lemke was assessed in a similar way. The 16-year-old’s substitution appearance against Freiburg should be “understood as a sign of trust in his future.” At the same time, Favé pointed out that early debuts are no guarantee of a Bundesliga career. “Louis knows what is still needed,” he said, referring to areas for development such as defensive play and stability in one-on-one duels.

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