Mancienne, who looks certain 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 on the books at Stamford Bridge. On the books almost in name only, with the 23-year-old defender making merely six appearances for his parent club and starting just twice in the Premier League. Indeed, nearly his entire Chelsea career was spent on loan at QPR and Wolves, where he spent most of the last three seasons. 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. 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." Mancienne is confident the switch can only make him a better player. "I think it'll have a great benefit," he said. "It's a new challenge for me and to play for a big team such as Hamburg and to be playing week in, week out. "I'm really honoured to go there and really looking forward to the challenge." Mancienne will become one of only a handful of English players to have braved a move to one of Europe's top leagues in recent seasons and he claims it is a mystery why more of his compatriots have not followed suit. "To be honest, I don't know," he said. "I saw it as a massive opportunity to go abroad and to play in the German league, so I'm really excited by it. "I did have a few other options, but I saw Hamburg as my biggest option." Mancienne hopes to arrive at his new club with a European Under-21 Championship winners' medal around his neck. The defender is one of only three survivors from the 2009 tournament in Sweden, where England suffered final heartache. "Everyone's really up for it," he said. "In the build-up at La Cala, all the boys were really excited and and couldn't wait for the tournament to start. "And I think everyone's really geed up for the first game tomorrow."
