Michael Mancienne is keen to follow the example of Hamburg hero Kevin Keegan after joining the Bundesliga side.
Mancienne out to emulate Keegan at Hamburg
Michael Mancienne is keen to follow the example of Hamburg hero Kevin Keegan after joining the Bundesliga side from Chelsea.
Mancienne, who looks set to captain England in their European Under-21 Championship opener against Spain on Sunday, joined the German club 11 days ago, having spent almost 15 years at Stamford Bridge.
But the 23-year-old defender made just six appearances for his parent club and starting just twice in the Premier League, spending much of his senior career on loan at QPR and Wolves.
After deciding to quit Chelsea this summer, Mancienne snubbed offers from elsewhere to join Hamburg, where he will be reunited with former Blues sporting director Frank Arnesen.
Hero
He will also be joining a club whose glory days came in the late 1970s and early 80s, inspired in part by the signing of Keegan, who won back-to-back European Footballer of the Year awards.
"Obviously, you want to be remembered at your club for doing really well and I knew Kevin Keegan was a hero at Hamburg," said Mancienne, who revealed he had yet to start learning German.
"Hopefully, I can follow in his footsteps.
"I would loved to have played at Chelsea - I'd grown up there. I was there since I was eight but it's a difficult club to break through.
"An opportunity was put in front of me and I couldn't turn it down."
