Borussia Dortmund’s Gio Reyna to be part of Gregg Berhalter’s next USA roster
Gio Reyna’s astonishing rise in professional football looks set to continue in the next international break in March, with USA head coach Gregg Berhalter confirming that the Borussia Dortmund attacker will be included in his roster.
Reyna, who joined BVB in summer 2019 and only turned 17 in November last year, has hit the ground running in Germany. He recorded four goals and seven assists in 11 matches in the U19 Bundesliga, and was rewarded with a permanent place in head coach Lucien Favre’s senior squad over the winter break.
He made his Bundesliga debut as a second-half substitute in Augsburg on Matchday 18 in January at the age of 17 years, five months and two days, overtaking Christian Pulisic as the youngest American to play in Germany’s top flight and becoming the Bundesliga’s fifth-youngest player of all time.
Reyna has featured in every league match since then, accumulating 105 minutes of action across six games as he learns from – and takes the places of - the likes of Jadon Sancho, Marco Reus and Thorgan Hazard.
The attacking midfielder did not need to wait long to score his first senior goal, either. Coming off the bench in the 66th minute of Dortmund’s DFB Cup quarter-final clash with Werder Bremen on 4 February, he curled in a stunning effort from the edge of the penalty area to spark hopes of a comeback in what was ultimately a 3-2 defeat.
And, having shown that he is not overawed by playing alongside and against some of the best players in the world, Reyna made his UEFA Champions League debut in the Round of 16 first-leg tie at home to Paris Saint-Germain, even providing the assist for Erling Haaland’s winner in a 2-1 victory.
That impressive highlight reel has not gone unnoticed by Berhalter, who confirmed to Yahoo Sports’ Doug McIntrye that Reyna will be among the names when he announces his squad for upcoming friendlies against the Netherlands in Eindhoven on 26 March and against Wales in Cardiff four days later.
Watch: Gio Reyna living the dream!
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He is likely to have some familiar faces in the roster alongside him, with fellow Bundesliga representatives Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig), Weston McKennie (Schalke), John Brooks (Wolfsburg) and Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen), among others, in line to be selected, too.
And although Reyna is eligible to play for England – having been born in Durham while his father Claudio played for Sunderland – and Portugal on account of his dad’s ancestry, the attacking midfielder has only represented the US at youth level until now.
He made his debut for the U15s at the age of 13 in 2016, and even captained the Stars and Stripes at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Brazil last year, earning three of his 22 international youth caps for the US at the tournament.
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