LAFC Name Steve Cherundolo As New Head Coach.
The search for a new head coach for LAFC is finally over. This past Monday LAFC announced former Hannover 96 and USMNT star Steve Cherundolo as the new head coach. Cherundolo was coaching the Las Vegas Lights FC before he got the call to lead LAFC. He is another “homegrown” coach that makes his way into the MLS, something that the MLS is focusing on really hard. He joins Paulo Nagamura and Gonzalo Pineda as former MLS players to now be coaching in the league. Cherundolo certainly knows how the LAFC system works, so we hope he can lead this team to a championship.
Who is Steve Cherundolo
Steve Cherundolo was born on February, 19th 1979 in Illinois, however he grew up as a West Coast kid spending his youth in San Diego. He would go on to play for the Portland Pilots also known as the University of Portland. In his first season with the school he won the West Coast Conference Freshman of the year. Cherundolo was a very talented defender and his talents led him all the way to Germany. In 1999 he joined Hannover 96 and quickly found himself as a starter. At that time Hannover were playing in the second division of the Bundesliga. They would gain promotion in 2002, that season Cherundolo played 30 of the 34 league games. He would remain with the club until he retired in 2014, he had 370 appearances and seven goals in total with Hannover.
Cherundolos Coaching Career
Shortly after retiring in 2014 Cherundolo would go on and stay with his beloved club Hannover 96. He would become their reserves team coach and worked his way up. He was Hannover’s U-15 coach, then he became assistant coach for the top flight team, however only lasting one season. From there he became the U-17 coach and that would be his last time within the ranks of Hannover 96. He would go on and become an assistant coach for VfB Stuttgart but would end up leaving midway through the season and joined the USMNT as an assistant. He would stay an assistant for two years before he went back to Germany and was asisssant coach of the U-15 Germany national team. In 2021 he would have his first opportunity to lead a club under his wing, when he became Las Vegas Fc’s new head coach. Cherundolo has mainly played second fiddle in his coaching opportunities, however he has gained valuable knowledge and knows what is expected when he has to run a team.
