St. Pauli's Calculated Relaunch in 2. Bundesliga

The party didn’t last long at the Millerntor. After the emotional high of survival in 2024/25 – their first successful Bundesliga stay since 1995/96 – St. Pauli’s return to the top flight collapsed in brutal fashion. Six wins, eight draws, twenty defeats. Bottom of the table. Straight back down.

Relegation rarely comes quietly in Hamburg. This one cost them their place among the elite, their head coach, and a sizeable chunk of the squad that dragged them there in the first place.

Alexander Blessin was dismissed in the weeks after the 2025/26 campaign ended, the club choosing a clean break rather than a slow, nostalgic unwind. Several pillars of the promotion side followed him out of the door. Yet for all the exits and the scars of last season, the mood around the Millerntor is not funereal.

There’s a new coach, a new spine, and a division St. Pauli know well. The question is simple: are they building for another charge, or just trying to stop the bleeding?

Irvine era ends, spine ripped out

The headline departure is also the most emotional one. Jackson Irvine, captain, cult figure, and symbol of the club’s recent rise, has gone.

The Australian leaves behind 153 appearances, 15 goals, 21 assists and a promotion medal from 2023/24. More than that, he leaves as a player who embedded himself in the neighbourhood as much as in the team sheet. Which is why the timing and destination of his move raised eyebrows: a late-window transfer request and a switch to Cerezo Osaka, announced less than a week before St. Pauli’s first league fixture.

His exit is not an isolated crack; it’s part of a wider fracture.

• Goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, with 167 appearances and 43 clean sheets, has joined Al-Diriyah on a free.
• Karol Mets has left for Bochum, also on a free, after 91 games in brown and white.
• On the right, Manolis Saliakas has been sold to Olympiacos for €1.3 million following 120 appearances.
• Hauke Wahl, another cornerstone at the back, moves to Wolfsburg for €2 million after 105 games.
• Daniel Sinani has gone to Sampdoria on a free having played 70 times.

That’s a core ripped out of the dressing room in one summer. Leadership, continuity, and reliability – all gone. For a relegated side, this is the usual cost of doing business. For a club with promotion ambitions, it’s a serious rebuild.

Hrgota the headline act in a targeted rebuild

St. Pauli’s response has not been a scattergun spree. It’s been calculated.

The marquee signing is Branimir Hrgota from Fürth, and on paper it looks like a clever piece of business. The veteran forward arrives on a free, bringing with him the kind of 2. Bundesliga pedigree that immediately changes the tone of an attack.

Hrgota is Fürth’s all-time leading scorer across the top two tiers of German football, with 69 goals and 41 assists in 238 appearances. He knows this league. He knows how to drag a team out of it in the right direction, as he showed in 2020/21 when his 16 goals and 7 assists powered Fürth to only the second Bundesliga promotion in their history.

For a side that has just lost its captain and emotional fulcrum, his experience is worth as much as his finishing.

At the back, St. Pauli have moved to plug some of the gaps with Marcus Mathisen, a seasoned centre-back from Magdeburg, also arriving on a free. He is not a like-for-like replacement for the entire departing backline, but he does give Marcel Rapp a reliable option as he reshapes the defensive structure.

And it is Rapp who may prove to be the most important signing of all.

The 47-year-old coach arrives from Holstein Kiel with his reputation on the rise. Two years ago, in 2023/24, he wrote his own piece of history by guiding Kiel to their first-ever Bundesliga promotion – in the very same season that St. Pauli won the 2. Bundesliga title. He knows how to build a promotion contender, how to manage pressure, and how to impose a clear identity on a squad that’s been shaken up.

For a club that thrives on narrative, the parallel is hard to ignore.

Pre-season hints: goals, gaps, and a setback

Pre-season usually flatters or deceives. This one did a bit of both, but it also offered a glimpse of what Rapp wants.

The tour opened with a familiar local fixture: Altona 93. St. Pauli swept their city neighbours aside 6-2, a scoreline that suggested early attacking fluency. Next came Regionalliga Nord side Kickers Emden, where a more workmanlike 3-1 win underlined that this team can grind as well as glide.

The third outing, against Babelsberg, carried a different kind of significance. The clubs share one of German football’s strongest fan friendships, and on the pitch St. Pauli delivered a 4-1 win. Abdoulie Ceesay stole the show with a first-half hat-trick, the kind of performance that makes you circle his name in ink for the season ahead.

Then came the first real bump.

Against Croatian side Gorica, St. Pauli won 2-1 thanks to goals from Louis Oppie and Ricky-Jade Jones, but the result came at a cost. Ceesay, fresh off that hat-trick, suffered a capsule-ligament injury in his right ankle. A player who looked ready to explode into the new campaign suddenly became a waiting game.

The penultimate test was a step up in class – Premier League and Europa League side Bournemouth in Austria. St. Pauli struck first through Kaars in the 22nd minute, only to unravel as the English side hit four goals in 27 minutes. A 4-1 defeat, and a reminder of the defensive fragility that still lurks beneath the surface.

Back at the Millerntor, the dress rehearsal came against newly promoted LaLiga outfit Deportivo de La Coruña. It finished 2-2, with St. Pauli taking the lead twice through Taichi Hara and Kaars before conceding an 84th-minute equaliser. Encouraging attacking patterns, but again, a soft underbelly late in the game.

Across the tour, one theme stood out: this team will create chances. Whether they can consistently keep the door shut at the other end is what Rapp must solve.

Shape, selection, and the Rapp blueprint

Tactically, Rapp looks set to stick with a three-at-the-back system, at least to start the season. The structure is familiar to the squad, but the personnel are not.

With Eric Smith’s fitness still in doubt ahead of the opener against Fürth, the back three could feature Tomoya Ando or Adam Dzwigala alongside Nemeth and new signing Mathisen. It’s a unit that combines a bit of everything – aerial strength, mobility, and ball-playing ability – but it will be tested early as it learns to function as one.

In midfield, Fujita is expected to anchor the centre, paired with either Rasmussen or Metcalfe. Out wide, Pyrka and Oppie are tipped to patrol the flanks, providing the width and energy that will be crucial if Rapp wants his side to press high and transition quickly. Lars Ritzka and Erik Ahlstrand offer depth and rotation options, important in a long, attritional 2. Bundesliga season.

Up front, the options are more varied, even with Ceesay sidelined for now. Hrgota should start as one of the two behind the main striker, combining with either Jones or Hara in the supporting roles. Kaars is likely to lead the line as the focal point, tasked with finishing the moves that this system is designed to produce.

On paper, the predicted XI – Voll; Nemeth, Mathisen, Ando; Pyrka, Rasmussen, Fujita, Oppie; Hrgota, Jones; Kaars – looks competitive. It’s not as star-studded as some of last season’s line-ups, but it has balance, legs, and enough quality to hurt opponents.

Crucially, there is still a recognisable core. The squad has been thinned, not gutted beyond repair.

Promotion pressure and a different kind of race

History offers a warning. The last time St. Pauli were relegated before this, back in 2010/11, it took them 13 long years to climb back into the Bundesliga. The fastest return the club has ever managed is four seasons, a mark they’ve hit twice in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The temptation is to fear a repeat of that long exile. Yet there are reasons to think this cycle might play out differently.

Despite the exits, the squad still has enough quality to compete at the top end of the table. The pre-season results, Bournemouth aside, suggested a side capable of playing on the front foot and unsettling opponents. And in terms of market value, St. Pauli boast the second most valuable squad in the division, behind only VfL Wolfsburg – even if the gap to Wolfsburg is a hefty €200 million.

That matters in a league where depth and individual quality often decide the promotion race in the final third of the season.

Wolfsburg will start as clear title favourites, with the resources and squad to back it up. Behind them, the battle for second and the play-off spot is likely to be fierce. Hannover are in the mix. So are fellow relegated side Heidenheim. St. Pauli are right there with them, provided Rapp can knit his new-look side together quickly.

The margin for error will be thin. But this is not a club bracing for mid-table obscurity.

A top-six finish should be the minimum expectation. If Hrgota hits his stride, if the back three settles, and if Rapp’s ideas land as quickly in competitive games as they have in flashes during pre-season, a genuine push for the top three is more than just wishful thinking.

After the crash of last season, St. Pauli stand again at the foot of the mountain. The climb back has started. The only real unknown is how fast they intend to go.