NYCFC sign defender Chris Gloster

To be as kind as I can be, New York City FC’s offseason ahead of the 2021 season has been a slow burn. Despite losing key (or at least familiar) players such as Alexander Ring and Ronald Matarrita, the Bronx Blues haven’t added much in the way of replacements. The only additions to speak of to this point is left back Malte Amundsen and Cody Mizell, the latter of whom most likely being an emergency choice.

Yesterday, NYCFC added a second player to shore up the defense with the signing of American Chris Gloster.

At only 20 years old, Gloster comes into the team with an astronomical upside. A former New York Red Bulls youth product, Gloster transferred to German club Hannover 96 in 2018. The young defender feature several times for Hannover’s reserve team before transferring to Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven in 2019. Much like at Hannover, Gloster only featured for PSV’s reserve side and never got a chance to crack into the first team.

Gloster has, however, been very active in the USMNT’s youth circuit, racking up over 50 international caps for the United States’ U-17, U-19, U-20, and U-23 teams. His last call-up was back in January for the U-23’s Olympic qualifying camp. He did not make the final roster.

NYCFC did not disclose Gloster’s transfer fee. It was, however, revealed that City paid the Red Bulls $100,000 in General Allocated Money (GAM) in order to acquire his Homegrown rights. There are also other undisclosed GAM fees that New York City may owe the Jersey Boys if certain performance-based benchmarks are met.

According to his Transfermarkt profile, Gloster is primarily a left back but has experience both on the left wing and in the defensive midfield. If he is to be played in his primary position, Gloster will have to compete with Gudmundor Thorarinson and the aforementioned Amundsen if he is to see any minutes in 2021. But given manager Ronny Deila’s penchant for young players, the young American could be in luck.