Giovanni Reyna has gotten his Bundesliga season off with a bang, and the American teenager has already begun to attract high-level transfer interest, even though it remains highly unlikely he is anywhere but Borussia Dortmund for the foreseeable future.
Liverpool is reportedly interested in the American teenage sensation, German outlet Bild reported Wednesday. Reyna, 17, is in his first full season with Dortmund’s first team after bring promoted by Lucien Favre in January, but his success last season, coupled with his increased role at Dortmund has solidified his standing as one of the top teenage prospects in Europe.
Reyna scored one goal and added one assist last season for Dortmund, but did gain valuable experience in three different competitions for the club. After a strong preseason, the U.S. Men’s National Team prospect has scored in his first two domestic appearances this season, most recently scoring his first Bundesliga goal in 3-0 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach.
Early rumors have identified Liverpool as a team interested in Reyna, but the same Bild report that identified the interest from Liverpool also pointed out that Reyna has two more option years left on his current contract with Dortmund after the current season. That, coupled with Dortmund’s interest in signing Reyna to a new contract, will ensure the young midfielder stays at Dortmund in the coming years, unless a suitor steps forward with a major transfer offer, which isn’t likely to come in the near future given the current state of the transfer market due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This isn’t the first time Liverpool has been linked to an American. The Reds were previously linked to Christian Pulisic when he was at Dortmund, which was a natural link given Jurgen Klopp’s familiarity with Pulisic, who eventually wound up at Chelsea in a $73 million transfer completed in the winter of 2019.
If Reyna does eventually make a move to the Premier League, he would be following in the footsteps of his father Claudio, who played in England with Sunderland and Manchester City. In fact, Gio Reyna was born in England while his father was playing for Sunderland.
While a transfer away from Dortmund is probably still several years away, Reyna will now focus on maintaining the starting role he has earned under Lucien Favre.
Dortmund continues its league schedule on Saturday at Augsburg while Liverpool hosts Arsenal on Monday in EPL play.
The current COVID situation and he upcoming Winter WC in 2022 are going to cause some reconsideration for transfers for a while. Case in point with a WC in December will the Transfer window still open early January…or will it be pushed back to say Feb/March?
If I were to guess, I’d think BvB would want to hold onto Reyna until after the 2022 WC. If the USMNT and/or Reyna have a good run it’ll only increase his market value.
Strong performances through WCQ and in the WC will boost the asking price.
Interest generally means they’re scouting him not working on an offer. As the article mentioned Liverpool and others “were interested” in Pulisic. Then they’d ask Klopp about it and he’d chuckle and say in a few years we might bring him in. If you read Bild the next two weeks you’ll probably see Liverpool interested in Haaland and then Liverpool looking to bring in Bellingham. All from a two minute conversation the reported had with the Liverpool scout that went “Who are you watching today.” Then bam he turns it into three articles.
Reyna needs to make a move when he has banked something akin to what Pulisic accomplished at Dortmund. starting, production. until then it would be a money move where he would end up shuffled to the LFC bench. i see how that makes him richer. i don’t see how that progresses his career. i continue to advocate the approach of incremental ladder climbing of his teammate, haaland. pick a next step where you continue to play a lot, when you are ready.
Right on. It’s the Reggie Cannon approach as well. Better to be playing consistent minutes and progressing up than on the bench at a big name club. Whether its MLS/Belgium —> Germany —> England/Spain or Holland/Portugal —> Ligue 1 —> Italy/Germany, I’m not sure it matters but it’s pretty clear in my mind that this is the better way to go (McKennie, Reyna, Pulisic, Bradley) than a transfer to a big name club followed by a loan to a club in a smaller market (e.g., Altidore, Miazga, Palmer-Brown, etc.). There is a trade-off in terms of money, no doubt, so easy for me to say and the player is gambling to a degree, but I say bet on yourself, become a solid pro in a Top 5-10 league, work your way up to the Top 5. I’d add that it helps that kids are moving earlier these days, so you can spend years 17-21 in Holland, then years 22-25 in Germany/Italy, and sign a contract at age 26 at the height of your career in England or Spain and making $100,000 a week for 3 years. In the old days, a kid coming out of college into MLS and making an all-star team, say at age 24, didn’t have time on his side.
Whyen you engage in generalities you open yourself up to contradictory evidence. How is starting at a smaller club/league anhy different than being loaned out from a bigger club? Miazga played regularly in Holland, then went to France where he had a trouble with the coach, then to the English championship. With Palmer Brown he seems to have established himself firmly in the Austrian Bundesliga from where he could go to the German Bundesliga. Yedlin began with Spurs, got shifted around, spent time in the champi8onship due to relegation, but has spent a lot of time in the Premier League.I don’t see that those players have harmed their careers or advancement by starting out by transferring to a big club that loans them out.
EPB has been a pro for 7 years and has maybe 20 or so first team games for the team holding his registration, all for KC. the college graduate pro your colleague is discussing would be 30 after 7 years professional. AND HE STILL GETS TALKED ABOUT LIKE A PROSPECT. after 2 teams’ worth of being passed around. i am glad he is getting on well in Vienna but he is actually just like Miazga in the sense of never two nights in the same city, so to speak, and how when one year goes well he won’t be there next year.
to me a player who is signed directly to a team willing to play him gets more power over his choice of team long term, and gets their commitment to him. to me a lot of the loan players are taking a low percentage gamble they get retained at the mother club, in exchange for money, but their careers often stall out. people act like we have 2 guys in EPL. it’s much higher. but few actually play there. i appreciate ambition but people need to acknowledge for some of these guys any step up the ladder is ambition. i don’t think a ton more players than pulisic are thinking clearly in being as ambitious as they are. a lot would benefit from a permanent home where they can make their case.
i mean, technically Pulisic, Miazga, and Scott were all Chelsea at a point last year. only one played there. the other, miazga, who was starting to get involved in the NT 17-18, has slipped in terms of regularity. scott people other than us obsessives don’t even know exists anymore. my point is the Chelsea decision was bright for one of the three — and that one would have been very predictable beforehand. similarly, we have several players who are technically city assets. one of them sees time in the second-tier cup. he was on loan last year. the others are on basically permanent rotating loans. the players with first team playing time are the only ones Berhalter seems to remember the phone numbers for. other than payday i am not sure who this helps.
@ Gary Page – Because when you’re on loan, you are by definition not there permanently. The club hasn’t made the same financial commitment that they have with a purchase and thus doesn’t have the same incentive to play you and get a return on investment. And the player always has in the back of his mind that he may be moving back, has an eye on what’s going on at the other club, is looking for other opportunities in case the loan goes south, etc. I think there’s a huge difference actually in terms of psychology.
Add in the fact that big parent clubs use the buy-then-loan strategy to game the PPP rules and I don’t necessarily think they even have the players best interests in mind.
You are right, generalities are subject to exceptions and contradictions. That doesn’t make the general rule wrong.
Personally, I hope he puts a good few years in at Dortmund and puts up big numbers. As much as Liverpool under Klopp would be an absolutely tremendous move, I would love to see Gio play at Real Madrid (this is, of course, provided he continues to grow year upon year). I think he has the skill and talent to do so, and his game intelligence is really next-level stuff already. For me as a USMNT fan, that’s the pipe dream that, honestly, doesn’t seem to far-fetched.
Dortmund is a develop and sell team. This will happen with Reyna as it does with like 90% of their young talent. My guess is it happens after next year assuming he puts in two solid seasons and the market returns to something more normal. If so he will probably break CP’s record.
I think it will happen after Haland leaves. So in less than 2 years, I see Reyna leaving.
A transfer of Reyna is probably “several years away?” Seriously? Several may not have a completely clear definition, but I think most would define it as something over five. Do you really think it is probable that a Reyna transfer would take that long? Only if he’s injured badly or his form dips.
And Covid might decrease the size of transfer offers, but it’s not like the transfers of top level talent is going to stop. Remember, Dortmund is losing revenue. That will make them more amenable to offers that previously would have seemed to low.
I’m not sure I’d define “several” as “more than 5”. But the point stands regardless — I don’t believe that any soccer club really has meaningful plans beyond a horizon of 18 months or so (and that’s a stretch).
Ha Clyde Frog. In a non-soccer context, I would certainly agree with you that “several” might suggest considerably more. But I don’t read it that way in this regard– at this point, I’d say “several years” means perhaps two, tops!
Several usually is used to mean 3 or 4. Reyna is currently 17. In 3 years he will be 20, 21 in 4 years, still very young. He can afford to wait if he wantsw.
I have never heard several used to indicate 4, and certainly not 3. That is “a few.”
As a former English as a Second Language teacher, I am confident that I was not leading my students astray in this regard.
By definition, “several” means 3 or more.