Joel Agyekum: a special place to make a debut

Although his league debut may have been somewhat overshadowed by Davie Selke’s winning goal to make it 2-1 in the fifth minute of stoppage time, that may have simply made it all the more special for Joel Agyekum. When he was brought on as a late substitute following the goal to secure victory, the 19-year-old consequently became the 520th player to make a league appearance in HSV colours since the Bundesliga was founded in 1963. For the HSV academy product and someone who has been at the club since 2017, it was also quite the location to make his senior debut. The Rothosen played their first ever Bundesliga match at the very same ground when they drew 1-1 with Preußen Münster on 24th August 1963, with captain Dieter Seeler and his teammates making competition history as the first to wear the HSV shirt.

More than 500 players have followed in their footsteps over the course of the 60 plus years since, with Noah Katterbach bringing the total to the half century when he made his debut back on 29th January 2023. The left-back, who is currently out injured due to an ACL rupture, came on against Eintracht Braunschweig that day just moments after player number 499 in the history books, Andras Nemeth. He is currently out on loan at SC Preußen and was in fact on the field for Friday’s clash and Agyekum’s debut. An unusual similarity between the debuts for Katterbach, Nemeth and Agyekum is that they were all taken out of the limelight by late goals to claim victory. The Braunschweig game back in 2023 is undoubtedly remembered more so for Ludovit Reis’s 92-minute strike as he rounded off a 4-2 win.

Joel Agyekum did not just make his debut for HSV on Friday night but also his first appearance at senior level and did so on just the second occasion that he had been named in a matchday squad. He will certainly not be forgetting this particular match in a hurry, with the celebrations after Selke’s late goal only adding to what would have already been a very joyous occasion for him.