Hamburg presents new coach Fink

Published Oct. 17, 2011 2:42 p.m. ET

foxsports

Hamburger SV presented Thorsten Fink as its new coach Monday following an encouraging Bundesliga victory over Freiburg a day earlier.

Hamburg remains bottom of the league but is now level on points with Augsburg and Freiburg.

Fink left Swiss champion FC Basel after Hamburg reportedly paid nearly ?1 million ($1.38 million) for his release. The 43-year-old Fink, a former player with Bayern Munich, signed a contract with Hamburg until June 2014.

''I am convinced that the club has quality,'' Fink said. ''I am not stupid, I am not going to go from a club that is playing in the Champions League to a club that can be relegated.''

Fink is Hamburg's 12th coach since October 2001.

Since the firing of Michael Oenning on Sept. 19, the team has been coached on an interim basis by youth side chief Rodolfo Cardoso and sporting director Frank Arnesen. Cardoso doesn't have a coaching license for the Bundesliga and Arnesen was officially in charge Sunday in Freiburg, when his team won 2-1.

Fink's first game in charge will be at home against Wolfsburg on Saturday.

Hamburg has never been relegated from the top division, and is the only team to have played in the Bundesliga continuously since it was founded in 1963.