The next 5 Americans ready to make it big in the Bundesliga and for the USMNT
The Bundesliga has turned emerging prospects like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie into leading lights for the USMNT and beyond. Now, it’s the turn of German football's new wave of American talent to make their names known back across the Pond.
bundesliga.com looks at the next five players primed to do just that...
By the time Pulisic had waved a final goodbye to the Signal Iduna Park, Borussia Dortmund had their next teenage sensation flying across the Atlantic. Reyna joined Dortmund in the summer of 2019 and has broken all manner of records at BVB since his first-team breakthrough, including some old Pulisic best-marks.
"I think his talent is similar to Christian Pulisic, or maybe a little bit better," said Dortmund assistant coach Jörg Heinrich at the end of 2019. "But we want to keep him grounded because we've seen what happens to a lot of the young players."
Watch: Dortmund's Gio Reyna: like father and mother, like son
Reyna had already made 32 appearances in black-and-yellow before he turned 18 in November 2020. In that time, the England-born two-time USA international has become the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga, to play and assist in the UEFA Champions League, and the youngest player in German top-flight history to assist three goals in one game.
Pulisic may have left big shoes to fill at Dortmund and become the leading man for the USMNT, but Reyna has big feet of his own, and he knows how to use them.
Following in the footsteps of Canada's Alphonso Davies, Chris Richards is well on his way to becoming the first American since Wolfgang Sühnholz, and the first America-born player, to break into the Bayern Munich first team on a permanent basis.
Like Reyna, Richards made his debut for the USMNT at the end of 2020. The 20-year-old Alabama-born defender arrived in Germany in the same summer as Reyna, though his progression has been more behind-the-scenes. Richards came to Bayern as a centre-back, but has played at right and left-back for the first team in the two starts he has made under Hansi Flick so far.
The former FC Dallas defender still sees his future at the heart of the Bayern and the USA defence, with ambitions of being one of the first-choice centre-backs in UMSNT head coach Gregg Berhalter's squads for both the 2022 and 2026 FIFA World Cups. Training against the likes of Robert Lewandowski on a daily basis means Richards will be better equipped than any other future US defender.
"I'm confident in myself," Richards told SiriusXM. "I just want to show everybody that I can be that young American guy that turns down Lewandowski in training. Even though a lot of times he gets me, it's definitely a back and forth thing. If I can play against Lewandowski, I can play against any striker in the world."
The most recent American debutant in the Bundesliga, Matthew Hoppe has gone from relative unknown to first-team candidate at Schalke in the space of a few short weeks. The 19-year-old California-born striker joined the Royal Blues in the summer of 2020 and would never have imagined making his Bundesliga debut before the end of the year.
The teenager - who has only played as a striker for two years - was called up to the Schalke first team in November 2020 and made his debut in a 4-1 defeat at Borussia Mönchengladbach. The Royal Blues are struggling in the 2020/21 season so far, but Hoppe is taking his chance to earn playing time at the highest level and show there is hope for Schalke fans.
Watch: Matthew Hoppe on making his Schalke debut
"I plan on learning [Schalke's] system and style of play as fast as possible,“ Hoppe said when he arrived in Germany. "Being the hardest working on and off the field and taking care of my body through proper nutrition and rest."
With his professional approach combined with the opportunity to shine for a struggling team, everything is set up for Hoppe to make his mark on the Bundesliga and catch the eye of Berhalter in the months to come.
Joe Scally already has something that Pulisic, McKennie, Reyna and Co. did not possess upon arriving in Germany: a place in the Gladbach first team.
"We have high expectations for him," commented Gladbach sporting director Max Eberl ahead of the 17-year-old's impending arrival in January 2021. "Our plan is for him to be part of the first team."
The American right-back agreed to join Gladbach in November 2019, but is waiting until his 18th birthday on 31 December 2020 and the opening of the January transfer window the following day for FIFA to sanction the move.
The Foals have no intention of holding the New York City FC youth product – who has since made his Major League Soccer debut – back. He can also count on close friend and former NYCFC youth teammate Reyna for support nearby.
"Gio and I hit it off right away when I moved to the New York academy," Scally told Bild earlier this year. "We were inseparable from then on in every training session and on every trip we made. He's my best friend and we stay in touch via FaceTime every day. I can't wait to see him in Germany. I know we'll be playing in competing teams, but hopefully, the fans will understand that I'll speak to him sometimes."
The only player on the list to be born in Germany rather than the US, Lennard Maloney is a name USMNT fans should keep a close eye on over the coming year.
The Berlin-born defender left Union Berlin in the summer of 2020 to join Dortmund, where he has been knuckling down for the club's U23s. Maloney has played all 90 minutes in 10 of his side’s 13 league fixtures so far in the fourth tier of German football, suffering just one defeat with BVB sat second in the table.
The 'Germarican' - as he calls himself on Instagram - holds dual German-American citizenship and speaks both languages fluently. He represented Germany twice at U18 level and once for the U19s before switching allegiance to the US, and has recently become a regular with the U20 roster.
Honing his craft at the home of Europe's model breeding ground for young footballers, 21-year-old Maloney could be set to make a splash in the near future.
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