FORMER U.S. NATIONAL TEAM right back Steve Cherundolo today was promoted to assistant coach for Bundesliga club Hannover 96, marking yet another significant achievement for the Rockford, Ill., native who has been employed by the team since 1999.

Cherundolo, 36, signed with Hannover one year after leaving the University of Portland in 1998. He soon established himself as a first-team starter for the then-2.Bundesliga club and he was an integral part of the team’s successful promotion to the German top flight in 2002.

Cherundolo would go on to have a career that would endear him to the club’s fans and is now considered one of its most popular players ever. Called  “The Mayor of Hannover,” he set a record for most-ever appearances in the Bundesliga by a Hannover player. He finished with 370 league appearances and was named the team’s captain in 2010—which is still a rarity for Americans playing in top leagues.

When Cherundolo retired in 2014, Hannover kept Cherundolo within the organization and named him as an assistant coach on the club’s reserve team as he continued his pursuit of his UEFA coaching licenses.

Even now there are very few American coaches in Europe. Bob Bradley is the head coach of Norway’s Stabaek and John Caulfield is the head coach at Cork City in Ireland, where he is set to become the first American to coach in a European competition this summer when Cork participates in the early qualifying rounds of the Europa League. Former U.S. national team forward David Wagner heads up Borussia Dortmund’s U-23 team, which plays at a professional level in Germany’s 3.Liga.