This story has been updated with comments from City SC sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel and coach Bradley Carnell.
In need of some scoring help, ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC went to a familiar location, Germany, to try to improve its situation.
The team announced Tuesday the signing of midfielder Cedric Teuchert, 27, who had been playing in the second division of the German Bundesliga with Hannover 96, to a contract that runs through June of 2026, with a club option for the remainder of the 2026 season.
Teuchert can begin training with the team as soon as his work permit is approved, but he can’t play in a game until the summer transfer window for Major League Soccer opens July 18. The first game he would be available is July 20 against Sporting Kansas City. That is City SC’s last game before the Leagues Cup break, and the team has nine regular-season games after that.
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City SC has been in need of offensive help since Niko Gioacchini transferred to an Italian club in training camp. Gioacchini and Klauss made a good combination up front, and sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel thinks that Teuchert could rekindle that connection.
“What Niko’s position was last year when he was here, that’s a bit where Teuchert feels the best at,†Pfannenstiel said. “I think he can play behind the center forward, he can play next to the center forward. He’s more the guy who can play off the big target man because of his deep runs and his speed. He also can come over the wings. I think he can play up front. All five positions.â€
(While Hannover and most websites label Teuchert a forward, City SC is calling him a midfielder.)
Though the MLS winter transfer window was still open when Gioacchini left, it was late enough that many European clubs were reluctant to move players. Pfannenstiel prefers the summer transfer window anyway, which comes at the end of most European seasons and when more players are on the market.
“I tried bring him to Dusseldorf when he was in Schalke,†Pfannenstiel said. “He was always a player I liked because of his playing style. He’s very direct for goal. He’s got good speed. And he doesn’t think much. He’s a scorer. He always scores his goals because he’s very direct. I tried very hard to get him in already in January directly when Niko left, and it really just fell through.â€
Teuchert’s past two seasons have been his most productive, scoring 11 goals in 24 games in 2023-24 and 14 goals in 29 games in 2022-23. This season, he got most of his goals early in the season, with eight in his first 10 games before suffering a hamstring injury that kept him out five games. Upon his return, when it became apparent to Hannover he would be moving on after the season, the team cut back his time, and he played almost exclusively off the bench.
His entire career has been spent in Germany, in the first division with Union Berlin or Schalke 04 and the rest in the second division. At one of his early second-division stops, Nuremberg, he was a teammate of City SC’s Eduard Lowen. They were also teammates on the German U-21 and Olympic teams.
“Teuchert is always simply a guy who you expect to score 10 goals a season,†Pfannenstiel said. “I don’t want to say at least but this is what you normally rate him on. Also good on set pieces and the combination that he played his Edu on the national team, he played with Edu in Nuremberg, and they know each other, they understand each other blindly. That’s another very important piece that’s a guy who, No. 1 he knows what the coach wants. He knows how we want to play football. And he knows some of the players on the team.â€
“He makes big plays in big moments,†said City SC coach Bradley Carnell. “In transition, he has a clean touch. He can drive and get the next guy in who’s in the final third. So he creates moments, and for sure, we wouldn’t sign him if we didn’t think he fit the style of play. We’re excited to get him in and onto our field and see how fits all the pieces of the puzzle together; we can get him as quickly integrated as possible.â€
With the German season just completed and the transfer window not opening for six weeks, Teuchert would get some time off for a vacation before reporting.
Teuchert (pronounced Toy-hurt) will be a TAM player, meaning he will make over the league maximum of $683,750, but the team will use targeted allocation money to pay the salary down to that number.
City SC is tied for 16th in scoring with 20 goals in 14 games, and the team recently went 285 minutes without having one of its players score. Klauss, who was tied for the team lead in scoring last season with 10 goals despite missing almost half the season, struggled to score at the start of the season, though he has found his touch recently, with a run of four goals in four games. But he has not had a player to effectively team up with like Gioacchini last season.
Pfannenstiel said he continues to look at the market. City SC had been reported to show interest in a better known German forward, Marco Reus, who plays for Borussia Dortmund and is a former teammate of goalkeeper Roman Burki, who acknowledged last week he has been trying to help recruit Reus to ºüÀêÊÓƵ. But Reus always seemed unlikely as Pfannenstiel prefers not to have one player making lots more money than the rest of the team. The club has also reportedly shown interest in a young Australian player, Jake Girdwood-Reich.