The Bundesliga soccer team Hamburger SV and sports director Stefan Kuntz surprisingly agreed to terminate the contract. After the Christmas holidays, the 63-year-old asked the AG’s supervisory board to immediately terminate his employment on December 31, 2025 for personal and family reasons, as the HSV announced.
“Sometimes there are more important things than football. That’s the case with me. I don’t want to say anything more about it and ask that you respect that,” he said Kuntz quoted in the communication. “I would like to thank HSV for a great year and a half. I wish the teams and the entire office the best.”
The report is likely to cause concern among many fans. Most recently, the media was mainly concerned with the extension of his contract, which expires next summer. For the time being, the club probably wants to continue operating with the existing staff. “We have had many discussions in the past few days and, with board member Eric Huwer and a strong second management level, we are well positioned for the tasks ahead,” said Supervisory Board Chairman Michael Papenfuß. From the start of training today, the focus will be on part two of the Bundesliga season and of course also on the current transfer period, Papenfuß said.
Kuntz took over the club from predecessor Jonas Boldt in May 2024. In the following season, by sticking with the then inexperienced coach Merlin Polzin, he played a major role in ensuring that the club was promoted back to the Bundesliga in 2025 after seven years in the second division. As a soccer player, he was under contract with several Bundesliga clubs in the 1980s and 1990s and was then coach of the German U-21 national team and national coach of Turkey, among others.
