Andras Nemeth is in outstanding form since turning down Sunderland in January

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By his own admission, Andras Nemeth has made the transition from KRC Genk to Hamburg like a proverbial duck to water. 

“Not at all,” the South Africa-born Hungary international tells Abendblatt when asked if he had encountered any teething problems in his new German home.

“The HSV team is also quite young, which helped me to settle in. When you feel good, you play well. It’s that simple. At least for me. I’m doing really well at the moment – on and off the pitch. One doesn’t work without the other.” 

‘Doing really well’ is, perhaps, an understatemtn. It took Nemeth just eight Bundesliga.2 minutes to open his account in Hamburg colours, calmly tucking home a 95^th minute winner away at Hansa Rostock. He was even quicker off the mark the following weekend in Heidenheim.  

Andras Nemeth chose Hamburg over Sunderland

Hamburg were 3-0 down at a direct promotion rival when Nemeth stepped off the bench midway through the second ‘45. He halved the deficit almost immediately, laying the foundations for a remarkable comeback. Without Nemeth’s interventions in the last two matches, Hamburg would almost certainly have dropped out of the automatic promotion positions.

Nemeth opting for HSV over Sunderland during the final few days of the January transfer window, then, may be one of those sliding doors moments. One Hamburg supporters look back on, a few months from now, as the decision which lit a fire under their promotion push. 

“It was very concrete with Sunderland,” Nemeth admits. “But I made the decision to come to Hamburg, because I think the project here is better for me and my development.”

According to the Sunderland Echo, Tony Mowbray’s very own promotion-chasing side scouted Nemeth extensively during his time in Belgium, seeing the 20-year-old poacher as something of a ‘future star’. That Sunderland lost top-scorer Ross Stewart to a season-ending injury days after the window closed, and days after Nemeth crossed the border into Germany, felt like a classic case of insult introducing himself to injury.

Whoever said Black Cats were good luck?

“Nemeth was really good,” Hamburg captain Sebastian Schonlau beamed after that six-goal Heidenheim thriller (BILD). “That’s how we imagine it when we sign a striker. He really cleans his things up.”