Not just players
From Barbarez to Vuskovic: A World Cup full of HSV stars
June 11, 2026 – 3:18 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
The World Cup starts on June 11th – and HSV is right in the middle of it. Current professionals, former crowd favorites, ex-managers: so many “red pants” are there.
It will be a while before the Bundesliga starts: the German elite league will not return from the summer break until August 28th. Until then, the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada will pass the league-less time for football fans. Whoever it is with that HSV will meet many familiar faces at the World Cup.
With Miro Muheim for Switzerland, Sander Tangvik for Norway and Luka Vuskovic for Croatia, three current HSV professionals are part of the field of participants. While Muheim and Vuskovic have a good chance of getting a lot of playing time, Tangvik goes into the tournament as his country’s reserve goalkeeper.
Also at the DFB: Ten former HSV players at the 2026 World Cup
The list of former “Rothosen” who made it to the World Cup is significantly longer. Jonathan Tah is part of the squad for Germany. The FC Bayern Munich central defender played for HSV from 2009 to 2015 and made his Bundesliga debut in 2013 at the age of 17.
Douglas Santos (Brazil), Ermedin Demirovic, Dennis Hadzikadunic (both Bosnia), Amadou Onana (Belgium), Turkish captain Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Austria’s Michael Gregoritsch as well as Heung-min Son and Hee-chan Hwang (both South Korea) also have an HSV past.
Tunisia’s Elias Saad has a special connection to HSV. The winger never played football for the diamond, but played for the futsal team. With the HSV Panthers, Saad, who currently plays for Hannover 96, became German runner-up and made it to the German national futsal team.
HSV legend leads Bosnia to the World Cup
It’s not just on the pitch that there are numerous connections to HSV at the World Cup. Sergej Barbarez has been coaching the Bosnian national team since 2024. The former striker played for Hamburg from 2000 to 2006 and was later a member of the club’s supervisory board.
His staff includes two other ex-HSVers, assistant coach Zlatan Bajramovic and technical director Emir Spahic. Bajramovic worked as a youth coach at HSV in 2013 and 2014 and was briefly assistant coach of the professionals under Mirko Slomka. Spahic played for Hamburg from 2015 to 2017.
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