BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The contracts for team captain Rafael van der Vaart and Marcell Jansen won't be extended, Hamburg's CEO Dietmar Beiersdorfer said in an interview on Saturday.
Midway through the relegation battle, Dietmar Beiersdorfer announced in an interview on the club's homepage that the expiring contracts of team captain Rafael van der Vaart and Marcell Jansen won't be extended.
"Rafael and Marcell know that we won't hold talks about a contract extension," said Beiersdorfer.
As a consequence, both veterans will leave the club after the current season. Nevertheless, both players "have assured us that staying up is the top priority."
Van der Vaart made overall 146 appearances to score 45 goals. The Dutchman joined the "HSV" from Ajax Amsterdam in 2005 to become a key player during his first three-year spell. After two years at Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur the midfielder rejoined Hamburg in 2012 unable to connect to his earlier performances here.
"Rafael is one of the best and most important player of the younger HSV history. We want to give him the opportunity to return here after his active career. We will speak at the appropriate time with him about that," Beiersdorfer said.
German international Jansen will also leave the club at the end of the season. Jansen wears the HSV jersey since seven years as he joined from German giants Bayern Munich in 2008. The 29-year-old midfielder scored 20 goals in 148 games.
Besides these two players, who will definitely leave the club? Beiersdorfer confirmed another two uncertain prospects with defender Heiko Westermann and Slobodan Rajkovic. "We have postponed the decision of a contract extension and communicated it to the players."
Hamburg are so far the only club, which never relegated into the second division in the Bundesliga history. However, they now sit on a relegation playoff spot with just 25 points from 26 games and will next encounter fourth positioned Leverkusen.