MOENCHENGLADBACH, Germany (AP) — Gio Reyna went into the 2022 World Cup as one of United States’ brightest young soccer stars. Controversy over his training effort and a family conflict with the team’s then-coach overshadowed his performances.
A World Cup on U.S. soil next year is a guiding light for the 22-year-old Reyna to revive a career dogged by injuries.
Reyna says he’d now handle the 2022 incident differently “in certain ways” and his actions stemmed from frustration, but the dispute wasn’t “completely” his fault or that of his family.
Speaking to The Associated Press at his new club Borussia Moenchengladbach last week, the attacking midfielder wants to use this season to convince U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino he still belongs.
“I do obviously think about (the World Cup) pretty often as it’s somewhere where I need and want to be,” he said. “But I try to focus daily here, stay present here, work here every day, and hopefully believe everything will fall into place.”
Frustration at Qatar 2022
In Qatar in 2022, Reyna played only twice off the bench. Then-U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said after the tournament that an unnamed player, later identified as Reyna, was nearly sent home for a lack of effort in training.
Reyna’s parents — Claudio and Danielle Reyna, both former national team players — lobbied the U.S. Soccer Federation for more playing time for Gio and contacted the USSF about a three-decades-old domestic violence allegation involving Berhalter and the woman who later became his wife — Danielle’s former college roommate.
Asked if he’d do things differently if he had that chance again, Reyna told the AP: “Maybe in certain ways, but I’m not just going to sort of sit here and take all the blame for something that was made out to be completely my fault, which I believe it wasn’t, and also my family’s, too.”
Reyna added the tensions “stemmed from” unhappiness with his game time.
“At the end of the day, I was just upset that, you know, I wasn’t really playing. I was playing at Dortmund. I thought that I wanted to play at the World Cup and ultimately in the end, I didn’t do that, and that’s really what it stemmed from,” he said.
“I guess the frustration and the disappointment was just wanting to play and help my country. It’s so far removed now and so far in the past, I don’t even really want to talk about it any more.”
The long road back
Reyna is hoping Gladbach is his springboard back to the national team. Joining up there with his friend and U.S. teammate Joe Scally was “the cherry on top.”
A litany of muscle injuries have stopped Reyna building momentum. His last three years at Dortmund saw him used as an impact substitute, loaned to Nottingham Forest, then benched for much of last season.
The last time Reyna played 90 minutes in a league game was in March 2022 and he’s played once for the U.S. since the 2024 Copa America. Fitness issues have limited him to playing four of eight Bundesliga games at Gladbach so far.
Even coming off the bench for Gladbach, Reyna said, is “still better than what I was doing last season most of the time.” With only four planned U.S. friendlies before the team’s pre-World Cup camp, Reyna’s main chance to impress is with Gladbach.
“I think Pochettino was very clear with saying, ‘You need to play, perform and then if you do that then you have a good chance to come in again,’” he said. “It’s all on me now.”
Dortmund is known for developing talented youngsters but Reyna now wonders if he should have moved “a little bit earlier” for more game time. “I had a good feeling when I made the decision to stay there. It didn’t work out.”
Learning from injuries
Reyna has had at least eight distinct injuries in the last five years. Most were soft tissue and muscle problems, with one leg fracture.
Fitness issues have also limited his role with Bundesliga struggler Gladbach.
“I’ve learned a lot about my body,” said Reyna. That means treating fitness work as more of a dialog with the club’s athletic coaches and finding new ways to deal with the mental strain of yet another setback.
“The first 24 to 48 hours are always going to suck. There’s no way round that,” he said. “What I’ve learned now is, after those one or two days where (there’s) obviously a lot of pain, a lot of downtime, down energy, you just have to get on with it. You have to kick on, you have to really just attack the rehab.”
Reyna says he’s taking on more responsibility on and off the field as he tries to fulfil his potential as a player.
“I would love to look back in the future and say that it was a pivotal year, few years here,” he said. “But talking is not really the way. You have to turn the talking into action.”
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