Gio Reyna hasn’t had much of a role with the U.S. men’s national team over the past year, but it isn’t stopping him from having goals ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Reyna has only featured once for the USMNT in 2025, making a substitute appearance in the CONCACAF Nations League third-place loss to Canada last March. The 22-year-old was not part of the Gold Cup squad this summer or the September and October international windows over the past two months.
Despite scoring eight goals in 32 international caps to date, Reyna’s chances have been limited under Mauricio Pochettino, and could continue heading into the final window of the year.
Although Reyna knows he needs to earn consistent minutes at Borussia Moenchengladbach this fall and winter, he still has his eyes on being part of the USMNT’s World Cup roster next summer.
“I do obviously think about [the World Cup] pretty often as it’s somewhere where I need and want to be,” Reyna said in an interview with the Associated Press. “But I try to focus daily here, stay present here, work here every day, and hopefully believe everything will fall into place.”
Reyna’s international career to date is more so known for the lingering effects of the 2022 World Cup. The attacking midfielder played only twice off the bench for the USMNT that winter, before later being identified as a player that was nearly sent home for a lack of effort in training by head coach Gregg Berhalter.
Berhalter was later investigated by U.S. Soccer for an old domestic violence allegation involving his now-current wife, an incident that was brought to light by Reyna’s parents; Claudio and Danielle. After U.S. Soccer’s investigation was completed, Berhalter was later re-hired by the program before eventually being relieved of his duties after the USMNT’s Copa America exit in 2024.
Reyna revealed that a lack of playing time under Berhalter in Qatar led to the tension between his former head coach and his family.
“At the end of the day, I was just upset that, you know, I wasn’t really playing. I was playing at Borussia Dortmund,” Reyna said. “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.
“I guess the frustration and the disappointment was just wanting to play and help my country,” he added. “It’s so far removed now and so far in the past, I don’t even really want to talk about it any more.”
Reyna has played just 120 minutes during the current Bundesliga season while on-loan from Borussia Dortmund and was an unused substitute on Tuesday as Borussia Moenchengladbach advanced in the DFB Pokal competition.
He will aim to get back to action on Saturday when Gladbach visits St. Pauli in league play.
i agree with JR that a relegation fighter team is likely to actually be conservative on player choice. for good or ill coaches in that situation start to develop a list they trust, even if the wins aren’t actually coming from them. you are on that list or not. they tend to be stubborn as their job is at risk.
and, yeah, it doesn’t help being a bench option whose recent history is limping off of games. last thing you need fighting to stay up is a sub who might need his own sub.
that being said, we may now be to the point where he can hit a reset button. someone said what’s his serious transfer market anymore. that’s a good thing. ask for a release. then pick a humble landing spot and start over.
i think he deserves at least a one-off to try and beat out his attacking competition for a bench spot for the NT, to show he has his crap together. the NT results for years are generally underwhelming and since he got dropped we faded from being able to win regional tournaments.
but realistically he may be looking at he never gets that 2026 shot from a NT brass obsessed with club form, in which case he needs to do damage limitation, draw a line under dortmund somehow, get someplace else, soon, on a reset. so he can reboot his career and build for 2030. technically his contract with dortmund is through 2028. that’s a potential career killer if they squeeze out every day while he does lousy loans.
•He’s got to play. Simple as that.
•Times I’ve seen him play, he doesn’t seem physically right, or is not trusting his body. He doesn’t seem to be able to all out sprint.
•Can’t sprint, can’t play, simple as that
LOL. The guy at 23 says he needs to take rehab more seriously. A supposed pro here. There were whispers at Dortmund he didn’t take it serious and now Gio himself tells u. No self respecting manager or GM at a decent level is going to invest/trust this guy anymore. Ridiculous. Type, rationalize and justify all u want. That is something that will make any successful, professional team say No Thanks.
Immature at best, stupid at worst. Then again, Claudio was known as a huge prick all the way back from college, and through his time at NYC…no wonder the kid acts so oblivious and privileged. Let’s not forget Danielle doubling down dirty on Gregs wife and kids after the official report came out. Fk these people. Go ahead….make your desperate pleas for GIo because u need your sport fantasy to come true. You wouldn’t if they were just neighbors or acquaintencaes. Sad.
Gio needs to put his head down and just work. His name should not even be in the mix for the final 26-man roster (increased from 23) to make the World Cup. He is playing FOR THE WORST TEAM CURRENTLY IN BUNDESLIGA, and Eugen Polanski, the interim coach who’s fighting for his job, is not relying on the skills or ability of Reyna to get the team going and out of last place.
In desperate times, no coach benches their “best players”, plain and simple. He fell out of favor with Dortmund, after years of being there, for a reason. He fell out of favor with GB and the USMNT for a reason. He is not starting for Gladbach for a reason.
We all know he is talented, but something is wrong with Reyna’s game that ALL his coaches eventually see and don’t like.
He hasn’t done anything in 4 years to merit a call-up.
Pundits like to talk about potential, bad moves, and old family drama, but no one can point to any major accomplishment during that period of time.
I hope he finds a good spot, and I’d love to see him slalom Mexico’s defense again, but I want to see him fight for a spot, lock it down, and be a steady presence in whatever league he plays for.
I want him to be like McKennie, who is the perennial odd man out at Juventus, but then makes the squad, is reliable, and then captains his Champions League team.
“He hasn’t done anything in 4 years to merit a call-up.”
-2 assists in 2023 NL Final
-2 assists in 2024 NL Semi-Final
-Goal in 2024 NL Final
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Overall 8 goal contributions in 16 apps since 2022 WC.
-You could make an argument in the last year since he’s had 6 appearances with no goal contributions but to say he hasn’t done anything in four years is discounting some important trophy winning play.
That’s fair criticism for production as a Nat at CONCACAF.
I was referring to his club form, which also should be used to determine if he deserves a call-up. Since the WC, he’s fallen out of favor with Dortmund, had 1 assist during his loan with Nottingham, and isn’t starting for Monchengladbach.
That’s fair criticism for production as a Nat at CONCACAF.
I was referring to his club form, which also should be used to determine if he deserves a call-up. Since the WC, he’s fallen out of favor with Dortmund, had 1 assist during his loan with Nottingham, and isn’t starting for Monchengladbach.
Ok, that’s reasonable but a vet has to have some benefit of the doubt. Reyna as one of the top performers from 2020 – early 2024 has earned some benefit of the doubt beyond his club situation. If your just looking at club situation Pulisic “didn’t deserve” call ups from ‘21-‘23.
JR, you beat me to the punch. I did a bunch of research to check the last four years also. To your list, I would add that IMO he was one of the few players that played well for the US at the Copa. He was asked to play a defensive role because Gregg had no one else he thought could play there and IMO was definately one of the team’s top performers (my Paul McCartney playing bass for the Beatles analogy). No player in the pool has had the kind of impact he has had in several big games for the US excluding Pulisic, but Pulisic’s and Reyna, when they are on, impact the games differently. Poch wants the best team and the players that give him the best chance to do well. Gio’s track record of many great performances will likely earn him a callup to the last camp with a chance to compete for a spot whether he plays no minutes between now and then. Talk is cheap and Poch can say a lot of things that make people think he won’t give him a chance to earn a spot, but no one should be surprised if when push comes to shove Poch does wvwryrhing he can to give Gio a chance to earn a spot on the roster.
And that warrants a National Team call-up?
Gio Reyna according to US Soccer / transfermarkt
Appearances – 32
Goals – 8
Assists – 5
What’s so special about that? Jesus Ferreira has better stats than that in terms of goals and assists contribution for that national team…..in less appearances too (and he’s actually still starting regularly for a club team)
Truth, he hasn’t done anything in 4 years AS WHOLE to merit a call-up NOW
John-
the fairer critique right now is not “form” alone, it’s he can’t stay healthy enough to see the field in club or be available for selection for the Nats.
but the rest is “club form” garbage where we’re supposed to not count NT stuff in favor of club stuff — when we’re calling you for the NT. on his game he’s top handful on the team on creating chances. and we’ve won more when he does so.
i think he deserves a shot at some point but to even get that he has to be fit and healthy enough where he’s available to choose and worth the time.
last, i am just generally bored with the hype roller coaster on sports talk. eg does baker mayfield suck or not. i am one of those people who are like if dude flashed excellence before he’s probably still a lot better than most people. i can’t pretend he sucks now.
but you have to sort it out where you’re playing more than 100 minutes total several games into the season.
Gio offers something that no one else in the USMNT player pool does, which is why anyone who follows the USMNT continues to write, talk, post, podcast, and discuss, ad nauseum, on whether he will make the USMNT roster for the 2026 World Cup. All of this, even after he has not played more than 1200 minutes in all competitions and over the last 4 European seasons.
In short, he’s click bait, which is why Larry continues to write about Gio, as well.
Gio has plenty of time and will have up until the very last minute to make the roster…just like anyone else. The timeline is not this upcoming window in November…it’s not even the upcoming window in March 2026…he will have until May 2026.
Even so, none of the next two upcoming windows matter. As another post mentions, Gio needs to focus on his club career. First, he must stay healthy and be available to play. Second, when he plays, he must be effective, productive, and impactful. If he can do that, everything else will fall into place.
At Gladbach, and in his first game Bundesliga game this season vs Weder Bremen, he was Gladbach’s best player and showed that he can be effective, productive, and impactful. He needs to continue to build off of that.
Him not getting in today’s game is Gladbach being careful with him, so it’s not concerning.
If there is something that would be concerning about Gio and his time at Gladbach, it was his 30-minute sub appearance vs Union Berlin. He came on with Gladbach down 2 – 1, but individually, he did not get into a rhythm, nor did he get on the ball much, so he never got into the flow of the game, and frankly, he was not effective, productive, or impactful. Gladbach lost, but his attacking teammates played well, all while Gio was on the field.
Those types of performances will not earn Gio a spot on the USMNT roster, nor should they.
Gio’s talented, but I think he needs to be in MLS right now.
The guy needs minutes. He needs success. He needs to be more than a professional afterthought in Germany. The B1 is a hard league and aside from the Prem probably the one that least suits Gio’s skillset. He’d do better in Spain or Italy…but I don’t see any takers, not right now, and I hate to tell him this but he’s probably a TAM guy in the million-dollar range, not a DP at the MLS level…which is certainly nothing to sneer at, but I don’t think that’s where he rates himself either.
I think he should have gone to play in the Eredivisie
And I know I’m in the minority here but I hope he makes the squad
I’m with you too. I wished he took Tillman’s spot at PSV (even though he wouldn’t be guaranteed to start) to help build his game and confidence
PSV passed on him as did Ajax and Feynoord. I’m not sure at what price he was offered but his agents tried to shop him in the Eredivisie.
Damn, had to be the time period Dortmund wanted $13 million for him and were holding firm, because Monchengladbach got him for $4 million later (with add-ons). I believe PSV would have paid $4 million to fill in the spot of Malik Tillman
Damn, had to be the time period Dortmund wanted $13 million for him and were holding firm, because Monchengladbach got him for $4 million later (with add-ons). I believe PSV would have paid $4 million to fill in the spot of Malik Tillman
i generally agree with this. he should whack his 10% over the head with a rubber mallet for extending his deal at dortmund to get a lousy low use loan at forest. he really needed the heck out of germany but i assume dortmund had some say and a hefty fee requirement. IMO he needs to let his contract expire or be released and then just start fresh at a moderate salary ask at a team that wants to play him thousands of minutes a year as a starter. ideally in a technical league where they don’t slide tackle him so hard his ancestors feel it.
i generally think we make too big a deal on transient club form or guys who perform club but not country. but this has become like when jozy bounced around for years and all that worked was AZ.
and his eventual stabilizing answer was toronto. i don’t know if it has to be that sort of choice or could be mexico or holland or the like, but he needs to run the clock on dortmund and quit grabbing for cash, or his career will start running out.
Too late for next summer. If he’s not starting and dominating for a team as bad as Gladbach right now, I just can’t imagine how he gets back on the USMNT radar in the near future. Hopefully he can string some games together, maybe have a great performance against Bayern or someone and get noticed, get another move next summer and work his way back up for next cycle.
He needs to be focusing on playing regularly for his club team first of all. We are way beyond calling in a player, no matter the team or league, who isn’t playing regularly. A more deserving player is Milan Iloski, now with Philadelphia. He scored 10 goals in 14 games with San Diego and had 3 with Philly and then scored a wonderful goal in their first playoff game the other day. Having watched him play, he is incredibly accurate in his shot making and rarely misses the goal. At the very least he should be called into the December camp.
Dude he couldn’t even get on for a Pokal game. Its looking unlikely he makes the USMNT WC team. The only chance he may have is get recalled by Dortmund and make a Jan loan move to an MLS team. But he would have to light it up in that 4 months.
And right now no respectable team in Europe has him on their radar.
Although a one goal game they were in control, you wouldn’t sub in your guy with injury concerns if you didn’t need to.
Don’t buy it.
Hard to tell he did start and then got hurt and has played a few minutes here and there since. Also the manager that brought him in got canned. The U23 guy is the interim. The new sporting director was most recently at Red Bull so as I mentioned a couple weeks ago gegenpressing might not be Gio’s forte.
He was sold not loaned so he can’t be recalled.
He is on loan with an option to buy.
Yeah you’re right I thought it was a loan with option to buy.
It’s ok I had to look it up to be sure.
“I was playing at Borussia Dortmund” lol, barely.
He hasn’t played for more than 650 minutes in a season for the last six years. At his current pace an injuries I will be surprised if he reaches 1000′ minutes this year.
He’s only 22, so who knows what happens in the future, but his ’26 WC window is disappearing quickly.
I think he meant in Fall of 2022 he was playing. He had returned as a regular, starting about half the matches between league and CL and playing at least 15 minutes or more every time he didn’t start.
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I still think Berhalter was scared after he went off in the first half against Saudi Arabia. He didn’t want to give up a sub window in the first half of a WC match.