News blog about Hamburger SV
“Huge blow”: Ex-HSV goalkeeper flees the Iran war
Updated March 2, 2026 – 12:15 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
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Former HSV goalkeeper Marko Johansson experienced the attacks on Tehran first hand last weekend. The 27-year-old has been under contract with Iranian champions Traktor FC from Tabriz since September 2025. The players actually wanted to meet on Saturday to prepare for the duel with Shabab Al-Ahli in Dubai in the Asian Champions League, which was supposed to take place on Monday.
At breakfast the team was informed that Tehran had been attacked. “It quickly became clear to us that it was best to leave the country,” Johansson told Bild. There was then a “huge blow” in the hotel on the training ground. “The whole building shook. We jumped up in fright and didn’t know where to go.” An Iranian military base is said to have been located around six kilometers from the site.
Within a few minutes, the club organized a car with which Johansson and his foreign teammates were taken to the Turkish border. The Swede then fled via Istanbul to Gothenburg. “Here I am with my wife and my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter,” he said. First of all, he trains alone in Sweden. He doesn’t yet know what will happen next for him at Traktor FC.
The Hamburger SV has to accept a defeat in the fortress Volksparkstadion: The Hanseatic League lost 1:2 (1:1) against RB Leipzig on Sunday evening. The Saxons were the first top team to celebrate a victory on the Elbe and secured an important three points in the fight for the Champions League. The one with no energy in the second round HSV Meanwhile, they lost for the first time in six games and missed the chance to move further away from the relegation places.
The Hamburg team took the lead in front of 57,000 fans through Fabio Vieira (22nd). Romulo with a backheel goal (36th) and Yan Diomande (50th) turned the game around for Leipzig. Although Romulo failed with a hand penalty to HSV goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes (62nd), Ole Werner’s team inflicted their first home defeat on the Rothosen in over four months. VfB Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern had not previously succeeded in this.
