Appointments with Horst Hrubesch are extremely unpretentious.

When he was still living in the eastern Lüneburg Heath, he once suggested the Uelzen station café as a practical meeting place.

Since moving to Schleswig-Holstein, a baker in the supermarket has served as a place for conversations.

You no longer have to go to Boostedt near Neumünster to meet Hrubesch.

He is now giving information in the Volksparkstadion, as the head coach of Hamburger SV.

The fans of HSV are suffering again.

This time not only because the team could gamble away their promotion again.

But also because of the fact that Hrubesch only remains the first trainer until May 29th at the latest.

Then the relegation second leg against the third from bottom of the Bundesliga takes place.

A month of Hrubesch, at the most, and after just two weeks it has taken the hearts of the people of Hamburg by storm.

Why not sooner, why not longer?

HSV board member Jonas Boldt decided only after the meager 1-1 draw against Karlsruher SC on April 29th to dismiss coach Daniel Thioune and to go into the last three to five games with youngster Hrubesch.

Hrubesch left HSV and kissed it awake with life.

A week of training in a good mood and lots of fun, a 5-2 win against 1. FC Nürnberg, and promotion via relegation seems possible again.

The fact that one of the biggest sons after Uwe Seeler is now successfully assuming responsibility at a traditional club like HSV has raptured fans and the football public.

Nobody tried to get him

The HSV could have had his Horst back much earlier.

Often enough he was in discussion for one or the other position.

But no one in charge has really tried seriously to help him in the past few decades, says Hrubesch.

Boldt did it a year ago.

This is not the first time that Hrubesch has been working in a position for which the word “interim trainer” is used. After winning the European Championship with the German U 19s in 2008, Hrubesch caused a stir when he took over the U 21s from Dieter Eilts and also became European champions with her. Neuer, Khedira, Özil, Hummels and Boateng: Hrubesch in Sweden planted the seeds of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Two years later he led the Olympic selection without preparation for the silver medal. Hrubesch was also the transitional sports director at the DFB, and he coached the women's national team for eight months in 2018. And unity has always been one of the top virtues of his teams.

What makes it easier for today's 70-year-old to be with the considerably younger ones is his thirst for knowledge.

If he was already the universally respected father figure, he also wanted to learn something from his daughters and sons: "I then had things like these apps explained to me on my smartphone."

The tough center forward of yore moves with the times.

He is by no means just a good mood uncle and mood brightener at HSV.

"We're trying to get some relaxation, but we also gave the guys tactical things," says Hrubesch.

Last Monday against Nuremberg he conducted audibly, corrected running and approach paths.

He let the crowned U 21s of 2009 play without a trained center forward until the final because he couldn't find a suitable one.

Now he is taking care of the replenishment himself and helped central attacker Robin Meißner to make his starting line-up debut against Nuremberg - a player that Hrubesch himself knows from Hamburg's U21s. There team worker Hrubesch sees himself as the top trainer, as a developer who guarantees the indebted HSV a steady influx of talent. That worked well with six players from our own offspring in the professional squad. Perhaps his successor will benefit from it. Because longer than these four weeks, this Sunday HSV will meet Osnabrück (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the second division and on Sky), Hrubesch does not want to be in the spotlight.