Without use this season
©IMAGO
Kenneth Schmidt will spend the next year and a half at Hannover 96. The 22-year-old SC Freiburg central defender, who was only used in the second team at the sports club this season, will be loaned out to Lower Saxony until the summer of 2026. “Kenneth undoubtedly has great potential, which he should now bring to the pitch through regular playing time,” said SC sports director Klemens Hartenbach, explaining the move.
“We have been following Kenneth’s path for some time and are happy to have him in our ranks from now on,” said 96 sports director Marcus Mann. “He has a good pace, completes his tasks against the ball in a clear manner and also finds very good solutions in the build-up of the game. With him we gain even more variability in defense.”
Schmidt has been waiting for a breakthrough in Breisgau for a long time. He was used five times in each of the last two Bundesliga seasons and was also in the starting line-up a few times in the second half of the 2022/23 season. In the 2023/24 season, the playing time was reduced from over 250 Bundesliga minutes to just over 60 compared to the previous year. In the current season, there were only five appearances in the SCF regional league team – partly due to injuries.