U.S. international Julian Green was demoted to Hamburg's reserve side after refusing to join second-tier club 1860 Munich during the winter transfer period, reports Die Zeit.
Green, 19, left Bayern Munich following the 2014 World Cup to gain experience on loan at Hamburg. But when the club's coach Mirko Slomka got fired after the youngster's first game at HSV, the USMNT international failed to win more than a handful of minutes under the new boss Josef Zinnbauer.
Hamburg sporting director Peter Knabel demoted Green to the reserve side in February, but the Bayern loanee refused to play for the fourth-tier side and also wrote on Facebook that he was not informed about the decision. A few days later, the attacker and club resolved the situation, but he has still not featured in Zinnbauer's match day plans.
On Thursday, Die Zeit reported that Hamburg tried to offload Green to struggling second division side 1860 Munich during the final days of the winter transfer period, and when agent and player rejected the proposal, sent him to the second team instead.
"I needed to defend myself," Green told the paper about his Facebook statement. "And a few days later sporting director Knabel apologised to me," he added, saying that Knabel had told him that he was unprepared when asked about Green in an interview.
But after both sides agreed to stop all communication with the public, Green had another talk with coach Zinnbauer and the sporting director a few days later. He hoped to talk to them about his future with Hamburg's first team, the paper reports, but the pair asked him to sign a disciplinary warning letter.
"It was written on there that should I be asked to play for the reserves again then I'd have to do it," Green said. "I did not sign it, but told them what I thought about it."
The loan misunderstanding will end in the summer, and Green hopes that he can turn around his fortunes when he returns to Bayern and Pep Guardiola in the summer.
"He likes me. I feel that. I can rely on him," the youngster added.