Weston McKennie is currently in the United States as part of Juventus’ preseason tour, but the American midfielder could reportedly be on the move ahead of the new Serie A season.
Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund have continued their push to acquire McKennie from Juventus this summer, TuttoSport reported Monday. Juventus is reportedly asking for €25 million for McKennie, according to the report.
Brighton & Hove Albion were previously linked with McKennie in May as a potential replacement for Moises Caicedo this summer. However, interest has reportedly cooled down with Caicedo still part of the Seagulls’ squad.
McKennie, 24, made 20 combined appearances on loan for Leeds United during the Lilywhites’ eventual relegation from the English Premier League. The Texas native originally joined Juventus on loan in August 2020 before joining the club permanently from Schalke in June 2021.
McKennie has scored 13 goals in 96 combined appearances in Turin, winning the SuperCoppa Italiana and Coppa Italiana competitions once apiece.
In total, McKennie has made over 200 appearances at club level for Schalke, Juventus, and Leeds United. He also remains a key player for the USMNT, earning 44 caps to date, scoring 11 goals, and winning the Concacaf Nations League twice (2021, 2023).
Aston Villa clinched a berth into the UEFA Europa Conference League Playoff Round after finishing seventh in the English Premier League last season. It will be the Villans’ first European involvement since 2011 across all competitions.
Borussia Dortmund missed out on the Bundesliga title after falling just short to Bayern Munich on the final day of the season. A move to Dortmund would unite McKennie with fellow USMNT midfielder Gio Reyna, who enjoyed a positive campaign for the Black and Yellow.
Ummm…..doesn‘t Gio have to actually show he can remain healthy, even for a limited amount of time at this point?
Who would make a guy with his history the man anywhere?
He can‘t be relied on if you are a club team. US Nat over projection of his worth.
Stay healthy for a year then we can start talking.
This article is about Weston not Gio.
Dortmund just signed Sabitzer so not sure they’ll still be interested in a CM having already signed Nmecha (reportedly 49 million euros combined) and extended Can. With Brandt, Reus, Sabitzer, and Nmecha don’t expect to see much Gio midfield minutes this season. Also with Adeymi, Binnoe-Gittens, Malen, and Duranville minutes every where for Gio aren’t going to come easy.
Yep. I would like to see Gio secure a loan to a team where he can be the guy this season. Hard to see a future for Gio with Dortmund. He is at a critical juncture of his career where needs to be playing week in and week out. You would hope he realizes this too.
I don’t think his health has earned him the right to.go anywhere else and be considered “the man”. He needs to stay at Dortmund and play from the bench like he did last season while also proving he can stay injury free before moving. Good thing about Gio is he still really young at 20y/o, so another season like the previous one where he contributes as a sub to limit is exposure to injury would do him good
JR
BVB has to replace Bellingham and Guerreiro
That’s why Sabitzer and Nmencha
Gio’s future with BVB is not in midfield.
Reus, 34, is probably his role model but he’s even more famously injury prone than Gio. And BVB almost did not bring him back this upcoming season without a pay cut.
Brandt is 26 and had a hell of a year last year but has been inconsistent. If this is now the real Julian, then he will be Reus’ replacement. BVB just extended him.
That leaves the kids you mentioned. Adeymi (21) had a good year last year but also plays mostly at left wing. Malen (24) is older, Binnoe-Gittens (18)_, and Duranville ( 17) are teenagers
If you look at Gio’s track record what seems clear is that BVB don’t trust Gio’s durability so last season it made sense to give the kids a shot, especially because they were playing well.
Yet even in a part time role, GIo excelled.
Gio (20) is younger than all of them except for Binnoe-Gittens and Duranville. And who knows how they will play this upcoming season?
While BVB are not in full rebuild mode, losing Bellingham and Guerreiro calls for a pretty hefty reset and none of the players mentioned here are fulltime, full on regular star players yet.
BVB have a lot of work to do
That Gio is still with BVB tells me whatever offers there were for him, if any, were not good enough. Better to give him one more chance to up his value while playing for an experimental team.
Burdened by his parents and diva shitbag though he may be, if Gio can consistently get close to his best, then BVB can use him. To me Gio is the classic “you can’t win a game if you’re not playing” kind of player.
If y’all are looking for easy minutes for him, then he should go play for NYCFC. USMNT fans seem obsessed with US players not having to compete for minutes and I’m curious about that. Do y’all think that beating out lousy players makes you a better player? Then why aren’t we capping Linden Gooch anymore?
Or do you think beating out tough opposition every day makes you a better player? We have talented players but they don’t seem to know much about winning games they have to win. The last time the USMNT won a knockout game they had to win was back in 2002 when they beat Mexico in the knockout game of the 2002 World Cup.
Twenty one years of settling for losing.
Huh….. Sabitzer is a CAM. I would rather Gio be playing wekk in and week out for say Gladbach or like Mainz then riding the pine every week for Dortmund. Why are USMNT fans obsessed with their players riding the pine at big clubs?
2tone,
The point is, if Gio has enough talent that, if he can tame his body and focus, he won’t be riding the pine, no matter what club he is at.
” Sabitzer is a CAM.”
Right now he’s better than Gio but a CAM is what the best version of Gio should be
If he can’t do that then he’ll just be another in the long line of talented Americans who settled for less than their best.
Pulisic, even though he is not a talented as Gio, is at least trying to push himself to be the best player he can be. Milan are has beens and aren’t much but at least they play in the Champions League.
I’ll give CP11 credit for that.
I get all that, I was trying to lower expectations of people that think somehow Gio is going to walk back into the starting lineup when he’s healthy. I really thought they’d move on from him this summer but apparently there wasn’t the interest they were looking for. I think he’s a little hampered by the manager wants a different type of winger than Gio’s profile. But then they’ve signed CMs that seem to match his profile, so do they not rate him or is it the injury scares?
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Guerrero played more as a LB last season filling in at CM when Bellingham was injured so even though they lost two players the 2 CMs are only replacing one spot, and maybe Sabitzer provides some cover should Brandt revert to his old self and Marco go down (again). They signed Joe Scally’s old teammate Bensebaini to play LB.
JR,
Given all that money they got for Bellingham and Guerreiro., replacing him with past his best Sabitzer (20 million) and project Nmencha (30 million) seems unconvincing and kind of like bargain hunting.
They need to hope that one of the wunderkids turns out or that Gio can reclaim his early promise. If not BVB comes off as looking cheap and distinctly average.