Team

Quartet depart as contracts expire

After the end of the 2. Bundesliga season, Christoph Moritz, Jairo Samperio, Timo Letschert and Kyriakos Papadopoulos have left HSV as their contracts have not been renewed.

Hamburger SV said goodbye to four more members of the first team squad on Tuesday, as Christoph Moritz, Jairo Samperio, Timo Letschert and Kyriakos Papadopoulos’s contracts expired on the 30th June, and as of yesterday (1st July), are no longer HSV players. When the team came together for one last time on Monday (29th June) before the summer holidays, the nine players leaving the club said goodbye to their colleagues.

Christoph Moritz arrived in Hamburg in July 2018, signing on a free transfer after the end of his contract at 1. FC Kaiserslautern. After half a year at the Volksparkstadion, the midfielder moved on loan to SV Darmstadt 98 for the remainder of the 2018/19 season, before returning to Hamburg last summer. During his two-year spell with the club, the 30-year-old played 20 times for the Rothosen, and laying on two goals for his teammates.

Jairo Samperio also joined the Rothosen in the summer of 2018, joining from UD Las Palmas in the Spanish second division. A nasty knee injury in August 2018, tearing both the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, meant that the Spaniard was only able to take to the field three times in the 2018/19 season. The 26-year-old made an impressive comeback for the start of the new season, crowning an emotional game in Karlsruhe with his first (and only) goal for the club. During the 2019/20 season, the Spaniard made 16 appearances in all competitions, and now departs Hamburg for pastures new.

Greek centre-half Kyriakos Papadopoulos can look back on three-and-a-half years at HSV, first joining the club on loan in January 2017 and playing a large role in the Rothosen’s survival in the second half of that season, with two goals in 15 appearances. The loan from Bayer 04 Leverkusen was made permanent that summer, and the imposing defender made 34 more appearances in the following three seasons. The 28-year-old’s contract expired on Tuesday and will not be extended.

His fellow centre-back Timo Letschert will also leave the Rothosen after less than a year, having joined in late July last year. Having spent the previous season on loan in his native Holland at FC Utrecht, the defender joined the Rothosen from Serie A outfit Sassuolo Calcio. The Dutchman played 1,889 minutes in a HSV shirt in 24 appearances, scoring goals against Holstein Kiel and Regensburg in the league. Similarly to the other three players, Letschert’s contract expired on the 30th June.

HSV would like to thank the quartet for their exploits during their time at the Volksparkstadion. It has not been ruled out that a new deal will be agreed with one or several of the players departing at this moment in time.