Report: Hannover 96 Academy boss praises “well-educated” Chris Gloster

The New York Red Bulls had no players in the USA squad that won the 2018 CONCACAF Men’s U-20 Championship, but Hannover 96 had two: full-back Chris Gloster and forward Sebastian Soto.

Understandably, Hannover is minded to celebrate the achievements of its players, and so the club’s academy director, Michael Tarnat, has been talking up his CONCACAF Champion youth-teamers: “The Academy is on fire,” he told Hannoversche Allgemeine, “we are happy and proud to have these two players with us.”

The two 18-year-olds are recent arrivals at Hannover, both landing at the club over the summer. Soto, a Real Salt Lake Academy product, has been scoring freely for Hannover U-19s - nine goals in 11 appearances - and recently trained with the first team. New York Red Bulls Academy alum Gloster has also made swift progress in his short time in Hannover: logging appearances for both the U-19s and U-23s. “Gloster is already very far,” Tarnat told Hannoversche Allgemeine, describing the full-back as “well-educated”.

Much of Gloster’s soccer education has been with RBNY - he was at the Academy from 2013 to 2017 - so consider that a compliment to the club’s youth development system (and US Soccer’s national youth teams: Gloster spent considerable time with the U-17s during the 2017 U-17 World Cup cycle).