Thank you, Niklas Stark!
Niklas Stark’s career at Hertha BSC spanned across seven years, 16,177 minutes and 199 competitive appearances. It was confirmed back in April that the defender would leave the capital-city side this summer, which is why the 27-year-old took some time last Thursday after the play-off first leg against HSV to say his goodbyes to the Hertha faithful. “I’m very grateful for my time here, therefore it was important to me that I went over to the fans,” explained Stark.
Niklas Stark joined Hertha from 1. FC Nürnberg in 2015. In total, he made 176 Bundesliga (seven goals) and 15 DFB-Pokal (one goal) appearances, featured six times in the UEFA Europa League (including qualifying rounds) and recently played a part in both of our Bundesliga relegation play-off matches. Our number 5, who regularly led the team out onto the pitch as captain, even made it to the Germany Men’s national team during his time at Hertha, making two appearances for his country between 2019 and 2020.
Thank you, Lukas Klünter!
We would also like to thank Lukas Klünter for the four years he spent here. The 25-year-old joined from 1. FC Köln in 2018 and went on to make 52 competitive appearances for the club in all competitions, and he was unfortunate to have never found the back of the net. Due to various injuries, our number 13 has only featured six times this season. During his time at our club, the right-back made two appearances for Germany U21s.
Thank you, Nils Körber!
We’d also like to give thanks to Nils Körber for his many years of service to Hertha BSC. The goalkeeper joined our youth academy in 2011, putting in strong performances for both our U17s (20 appearances) and U19s (45 appearances), with whom he won the Youth DFB-Pokal in 2015, and earning himself a first-team contract. As a permanent member of the squad who trained regularly with the first team, the goalkeeper then went out on loan to Preußen Münster in 2017 before a further loan spell at VfL Osnabrück. Whilst at Osnabrück, he achieved promotion to the Bundesliga 2. Körber returned to the capital in 2020, and has been part of the first-team matchday squad on 20 occasions and made 53 appearances for our U23s.
We’d like to wish all the three of you the best for the future, both on and off the pitch. Once a Herthaner, always a Herthaner!