Hannover 96 II

Kevin De Bruyne spent the 2012–13 season with Hannover 96 II before his career took him elsewhere, one name among a handful of players who passed through the club on their way up; Max Kruse and Marcel Halstenberg did the same in the years either side of him. That traffic, rather than any standing of its own, is what the second team is known for: a stop on the route between Hanover's youth setup and the professional game.

The side carries no separate founding date of its own, having grown out of the parent club's amateur ranks and already competing in the regional top flight by 1959. It played as Hannover 96 Amateure until 2008, when the introduction of the 3. Liga prompted the switch to the now-standard "II" naming across German reserve football. It plays in black, white and green, distinct from the red that gives the first team its "Die Roten" nickname, and the reserve side has never carried a nickname of its own beyond "Amateure" or "U23".

Success has come in short bursts separated by long gaps. The German Amateur Championship arrived three times in the 1960s, in 1960, 1964 and 1965, with two further runner-up finishes either side of that run. Decades passed before the next honour of note: the Regionalliga Nord title in 2024, which sent the team up to the 3. Liga. The stay lasted one season before relegation took them back down.

Matches against Eintracht Braunschweig II carry the weight of the Niedersachsen-Derby, with VfL Wolfsburg II providing the other regular fixture of note. What the club has not managed is to hold its place once promotion is won; the 2024–25 campaign in the 3. Liga ended in an immediate return to regional football, leaving Hannover 96 II still searching for a first extended run at that level.