The New England Revolution has added much needed depth and competition to the backline. German fullback Florian Lechner has officially signed for the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe Flo will be a solid addition to our defensive corps and he adds versatility and depth to that group,\u201d General Manager Michael Burns said in a statement. \u201cWe were pleased with how Flo adapted to MLS\u2019 style of play and how he interacted with our players when we was with us in Tucson during preseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lechner will be formally added to the team\u2019s roster upon receipt of his U.S. P-1 Visa and his International Transfer Certificate. It appears unlikely that he would be able to play in the Revs match this Saturday at Sporting Kansas City.<\/p>\n
Lechner\u2019s contract with 2. Bundesliga (German 2nd division) club Karlsruher SC was through June 2013, according to German magazine Kicker<\/em>, but after a management change at the club the 31-year-old was told he was no longer part of the team\u2019s plans. He was allowed to join the Revs on a free<\/p>\n The 5-foot-10 native of West Germany went through the youth system at VfB Stuttgart and played for Stuttgart\u2019s reserves (2001-2004) before transferring to F.C. St. Pauli in 2004.<\/p>\n Lechner played 10 games in the Bundesliga (first division) for St. Pauli in 2010\/2011, before signing for Karlsruher in the summer of 2011. In total the German defender has played nearly 200 games in various German leagues, including 117 for St. Pauli.<\/p>\n Lechner, who trialed with the Revolution in Arizona, could challenge Chris Tierney for the left back spot or provide depth across the backline and serve as a mentor for rookie fullback Tyler Polak.<\/p>\n FLORIAN \u201cFLO\u201d LECHNER<\/strong> 31-year-old German right back is Revs newest addition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/lechnerfeature.jpg?fit=490%2C240","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10388"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10389,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10388\/revisions\/10389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPronunciation: LECK-ner
\nPosition: Defender
\nDate of Birth: March 3, 1981 (Ellwangan, Germany)
\nHometown: Ellwangan, Germany
\nHeight: 5-10
\nWeight: 170 lbs.
\nPrevious Club: Karlsruher SC (GER)
\nNationality: Germany
\nStatus: International
\nJersey Number: 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"