Kevin McKenna becomes new assistant coach

Hamburger SV have brought in another new face at the start of the international break, signing Kevin McKenna as new assistant coach. The former player joins the coaching team led by head coach Steffen Baumgart, who he already knows from their years together at 1. FC Köln. McKenna will act alongside Rene Wagner and Merlin Polzin as a further assistant, completing the coaching team, which also includes goalkeeping coach Sven Höh, athletics coach Daniel Müssig and rehabilitation coach Sebastian Capel. On Tuesday morning (3rd September), the 44-year-old Canadian will take to the training pitch in the shadow of the Volksparkstadion with his new colleagues and the team for the first time.

Straight from playing into coaching

The former defender, who amassed 112 Bundesliga matches during spells with 1. FC Köln and FC Energie Cottbus, went straight into coaching after the end of his playing career. Initially, he became assistant coach of the Köln U17 side, before with the club’s senior second team.  After just over a year as Boris Schommers’ assistant at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, the 59-time Canadian international returned to Cologne in the summer of 2021, working alongside Steffen Baumgart (98 games) and Timo Schultz (18 games) as assistant coach for the club from the Rhine. Now it’s time for a reunion with Baumgart in Hamburg.

Changes on the coaching team saw one new arrival and four departures

Since the start of pre-season, Tim Roussis has been part of the Rothosen’s senior staff. The 35-year-old from Velbert, North Rhine-Westphalia, had worked for FC Schalke 04 since September 2012 until he started his role as a physiotherapist in the medical department of head team doctor Dr Götz Welsch at the start of this season. Heading in the opposite direction were athletics coach Pierre Gillo (Head of Performance Aalborg BK), physiotherapist Christian Tambach (self-employed in his own practice) and match analyst Dirk Folkerts (RB Leipzig), who all left HSV at the end of last season after several years at the club. Lennart Coerdt, who had been coordinator of the senior team for the past five years, left the club in August.