Stephan Ambrosius
Stephan Kofi Ambrosius (born 18 December 1998) is a German professional footballer who plays as a defender for 2. Bundesliga club Hamburger SV. Born in Hamburg to Ghanaian parents, Ambrosius joined the Hamburger SV youth academy in 2012. He made his professional debut in the Bundesliga in March 2018. He is also a German youth international. Early years. Stephan Ambrosius was born in Hamburg to Ghanaian parents. He grew up in the quarter of Wilhelmsburg. Club career. Hamburger SV. Youth. Ambrosius started playing football at the age of 5 at local club Einichkeit Wilhelmsburg, before moving to SV  Wilhelmsburg and finally FC St. Pauli. In 2012, at the age of 13, Pauli moved to the Hamburger SV youth academy. At HSV, he progressed through all the youth teams until 2017 and played, among other things, in the Under 17 and Under 19 Bundesliga. For the 2017–18 season, Ambrosius was promoted to the second team, Hamburger SV II, and competed in the fourth-tier Regionalliga. 2017–18 season. In early February 2018, Ambrosius was promoted to the professional squad by head coach Bernd Hollerbach. On 10 February 2018, he was called up for the first team squad for his first  Bundesliga game, but did not make an appearance in the 0–2 defeat away at Borussia Dortmund. He made his Bundesliga debut on 31 March 2018 in a 1–1 away draw against VfB Stuttgart under new head coach Christian Titz, who had taken over the reigns in early March. Ambrosius debuted in the starting lineup and was substituted at half-time for Rick van Drongelen. This proved to be his only appearance during the season, which saw HSV suffer relegation to the 2. Bundesliga for the first time in club history. For the second team, Ambrosius made 20 appearances and scored  one goal. 2018–19 season. Ahead of the 2018–19 season, Ambrosius signed his first professional contract running until 30 June 2021. In the first half of the new season, he was behind Rick van Drongelen, David Bates and Léo Lacroix in the depth chart, and neither under Titz nor under his successor Hannes Wolf he made an appearance in the 2. Bundesliga, instead only playing in the DFB-Pokal besides his 15 appearances for the second team in the Regionalliga Nord. In December 2018, Ambrosius suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury, sidelining him for the rest of the season. 2019–20 season . In the 2019–20 pre-season, Ambrose was demoted to the second team by the new head coach Dieter Hecking. There, he immediately established himself as a starter again. In February 2020, Ambrosius returned to first-team practice as Gideon Jung was utilised in defensive midfield following the injury of Adrian Fein and only Ewerton was available alongside central defenders Rick van Drongelen and Timo Letschert. After Jung received a red card on 29 February against Erzgebirge Aue and Ewerton suffered a long-term injury, Ambrosius was included in the first-team squad for the matchup against SSV Jahn Regensburg on  7 March for the first time that season. On the last matchday of the season, he made his first and only league appearance that season in the 1–5 home defeat to SV Sandhausen and received a "satisfactory" score by sports magazine "kicker", the best score of a field player on a desolate HSV team. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ambrosius made only 17 appearances (15 appearances as a starter) in the Regionalliga, before the season was cancelled. International career. Born in Hamburg, Ambrosius was eligible to play for Ghana due to his parents being from the country. Due to numerous  cancellations in his playing position by Nico Schlotterbeck and Maxim Leitsch, Ambrosius was called up by Germany under-21 coach Stefan Kuntz in early October 2020. However, as Ambrosius tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, he was unable to participate in the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification matches against Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ambrosius finally made his debut for the under-21 side in November 2020.