Thorsten Fink made 150 Bundesliga appearances for Bayern, and a further 86 for the FCB reserves in the third division south. He has winner’s medals from the Champions League and Intercontinental Cup, four league titles and three DFB Cup triumphs. After hanging up his boots, Fink turned to coaching with spells at RB Salzburg, Ingolstadt and FC Basel, before taking the Hamburg helm in October 2011.
Fink returns to Munich as a coach for the first time this Saturday, as eighth-placed HSV go in search of points in their quest for European football next season. Official journal Bayern Magazin spoke to the former midfielder about Saturday’s match: “I'm really looking forward to the reunion and to the game," he said.
Interview: Thorsten Fink
Bayern Magazin: Thorsten, after taking charge of your team for the home meeting with Augsburg, you've become the Hamburg coach with the third most Bundesliga matches this century – precisely 51 games. How would you interpret this number?
Thorsten Fink: I didn't know that to be honest. We’ve set out on a path, and naturally it's a personal challenge to continue guiding the team along it. I can say this with certainty: we’re very ambitious in Hamburg. I definitely contribute motivation and stamina, keeping the process going and expanding it, and building on what we've already achieved here in the last year and a half.
Your former player in Basel, Xherdan Shaqiri, has described HSV as totally unpredictable. There was a stirring 4-1 victory away to Dortmund and you also won away to Stuttgart, but in between you drew with Fürth and lost at home to Augsburg. What lies behind the inconsistency?
Obviously, we have lacked consistency from time to time this season, although we're not the only team complaining of that. Quite the opposite, almost all the teams behind Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen are battling the same problem. But despite it all, we're in a good position in the table, right in the thick of the battle for European places. So we're in a promising position, a position no-one thought we'd be in a few months ago.
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