On Wednesday afternoon, Stefan Kuntz was sitting in the stands of his new living room, the Volksparkstadion. He watched the second European Championship match in the Volkspark between Croatia and Albania as a football fan – but he had watched Turkey’s 3:1 victory against Georgia the night before as an expert. And after the match, the HSV sports director showed up in the RTL studio, even though he had recently turned down the private broadcaster. Why was he suddenly acting as an European Championship expert again? Kuntz himself provided the answer.
Shortly before the show “The RTL EM Studio – All Games, Goals, Emotions” hosted by Elton started on Tuesday evening at 8:15 p.m., Kuntz addressed the HSV fans and all his other followers on Instagram. “Short stopover in Dortmund. After the Turkey – Georgia match, I’ll be a guest in the EM studio,” wrote the 61-year-old. And then he added: “After that, I’ll be going back to Hamburg with Claus.”
Expert Kuntz makes an exception for the Turkey game
At the end of May, Kuntz had already started the car journeys to Bochum and Düsseldorf with HSV sports director Claus Costa, when he still had other contractual obligations shortly after taking office at the Volkspark – as a Sat.1 expert for the two relegation games.
So now the two sports directors are travelling to North Rhine-Westphalia together again, even though Kuntz announced two weeks ago that he had decided to “fully concentrate on my new role at HSV”. So without a parallel job as a TV expert?
If fans were surprised when watching the European Championship broadcast on Tuesday evening: Kuntz’s appearance as an expert was his first and only one at the tournament. “With one exception, I canceled everything for today’s game so that I could fully focus on HSV,” he explained to “ran” in advance. “But of course I’m following the European Championship, that’s still part of my job.” Costa and Kuntz share the same understanding in this regard.
Kuntz was coach of the Turkish national team for a long time
In fact, TV broadcaster RTL had already announced when Kuntz canceled that the HSV boss would remain part of the extended team of experts. It was said that they were in talks about suitable dates – and this was apparently found on Tuesday evening. This is quite fitting, as Kuntz was coach of the Turkish national team from September 2021 to September 2023, about which he has a great deal of expertise.
When Elton’s fellow presenter Johannes B. Kerner asked him during the show whether his heart still beats when he sees his former team play, Kuntz replied: “Sure. You can’t just cut it off and kick it in the box.” Co-commentator Steffen Freund, with whom Kuntz won the European Championship title in 1996, even criticized his friend’s elimination in Turkey: “Stefan shouldn’t have been fired.”
“Fantastic so far”: HSV board praises EM atmosphere
In that case, Kuntz might never have ended up at HSV – the club that has been his full focus for the past four weeks. Kuntz’s last activity as an expert for the time being doesn’t change that. And he certainly wanted to make that clear to HSV fans with his Instagram post before other speculations arose.
You might also be interested in: Werder striker to HSV? This is what the constant rumor is about
Kuntz is driving forward the planning in the Volkspark – but at the same time is also enjoying the European Championships. “I think it’s been fantastic so far,” enthused the former striker. “We had the game between the Netherlands and Poland here in Hamburg on Sunday, it was totally peaceful and there was a great atmosphere. Football is the main focus. That’s what I like most.” And Kuntz enjoyed that again on Wednesday afternoon in the HSV Arena.
2024-06-19 13:55:55
#RTL #cancellation #HSV #boss #Kuntz #deployed #expert
