Another American teenager is on his way to Germany.
This time it’s Real Salt Lake academy product Sebastian Soto crossing the Atlantic Ocean to play for Hannover 96’s U-19 squad.
The club announced the signing on Wednesday morning and he made his debut for the club hours later in a 3-1 friendly loss to Werder Bremen.
He is the second American to sign with the club ahead of the 2018-19 season. New York Red Bulls academy standout and U.S. U-20 Men’s National Team defender Christopher Gloster signed with Hannover earlier in the summer.
Soto scored 42 goals in 27 games for Real Salt Lake’s U-18/19 team last season and had committed to play college soccer at Cal. He also featured for the U.S. U-19 National Team when they took third place at the Slovakia Cup last spring as he won the tournament’s Golden Boot.
Curious if there’s one agent/agency or person inside the USSF that has facilitated all of these German moves. If there is someone responsible for it then they are doing an incredible job and should be getting a look for a GM position
The issue is MLS teams do not get compensated for developing these players. These are free transfers. Something has to change.
Curious how much the ‘Dolo connection helps.
Maybe our soccer youth academies should teach German to their promising players since so many end up going there.