Football General Manager
As Borussia Dortmund took on Mamelodi Sundowns in their second Club World Cup group stage fixture, Gio Reyna could only watch from the locker room at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati. In fairness, he wasn’t alone. Half of the Dortmund bench had joined him there, the German side watching their teammates toil in the scorching summer sun.
But that image – one that went viral on both sides of the Atlantic – summed up Reyna’s position in Dortmund right now. It was, in effect, the perfect metaphor. Reyna the outcast, watching from afar, not even relevant enough to be on the bench.
And that’s pretty much where the Reyna saga is these days. And yes, it is a saga. The Dortmund attacking midfielder is an immense talent. He is perhaps the most naturally gifted player in the USMNT setup. But at Dortmund, he has become, to put things generously, an afterthought. Niko Kovac clearly doesn’t trust him even for garbage time minutes, let alone the high intensity grind of the Bundesliga that Reyna, on talent alone, is good enough to star in.
For a few years now, the story has been one of "How Reyna is going to turn things around at Dortmund." But now, transfer talk has kicked up for good. His Dortmund future was in doubt before. Now it just seems non-existent. A move is inevitable. Landing spots are tough to evaluate. Another Bundesliga club might make sense. A more permanent home for a lower level Premier League team could also work
Recently, two links have popped up: MLS and Serie A. LAFC and NYCFC have been mentioned in the domestic U.S. league. Parma seem a potential Serie A destination – with reports suggesting a deal for a $7 million switch could be in the works.
But for this iteration of Reyna, 22, full of quality but in dire need of a fresh start, MLS simply has to be his immediate future. It is the only way he can play his way into the USMNT picture. And, more broadly, it would seem to be a career-saving move for an immense talent steadily fading into irrelevance.
As Borussia Dortmund took on Mamelodi Sundowns in their second Club World Cup group stage fixture, Gio Reyna could only watch from the locker room at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati. In fairness, he wasn’t alone. Half of the Dortmund bench had joined him there, the German side watching their teammates toil in the scorching summer sun.
But that image – one that went viral on both sides of the Atlantic – summed up Reyna’s position in Dortmund right now. It was, in effect, the perfect metaphor. Reyna the outcast, watching from afar, not even relevant enough to be on the bench.
And that’s pretty much where the Reyna saga is these days. And yes, it is a saga. The Dortmund attacking midfielder is an immense talent. He is perhaps the most naturally gifted player in the USMNT setup. But at Dortmund, he has become, to put things generously, an afterthought. Niko Kovac clearly doesn’t trust him even for garbage time minutes, let alone the high intensity grind of the Bundesliga that Reyna, on talent alone, is good enough to star in.
For a few years now, the story has been one of “How Reyna is going to turn things around at Dortmund.” But now, transfer talk has kicked up for good. His Dortmund future was in doubt before. Now it just seems non-existent. A move is inevitable. Landing spots are tough to evaluate. Another Bundesliga club might make sense. A more permanent home for a lower level Premier League team could also work
Recently, two links have popped up: MLS and Serie A. LAFC and NYCFC have been mentioned in the domestic U.S. league. Parma seem a potential Serie A destination – with reports suggesting a deal for a $7 million switch could be in the works.
But for this iteration of Reyna, 22, full of quality but in dire need of a fresh start, MLS simply has to be his immediate future. It is the only way he can play his way into the USMNT picture. And, more broadly, it would seem to be a career-saving move for an immense talent steadily fading into irrelevance.
To fully understand the Reyna plight, it is worth returning to the 2022 World Cup. There, under then-USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter, Reyna was expected to be an important piece. He had enjoyed a good run in the national team in the 18 months before the tournament, despite struggling at club level. Before the tournament, there was talk that he could be a true difference maker for the USMNT, the other half of a two-pronged creative force with Christian Pulisic.
That was where it all went wrong. Reyna played just 52 minutes that tournament, and rumors ran rampant that he was ostracized for his poor attitude in training and lack of commitment to the side. It would later come to light that the team held a meeting to decide if Reyna would continue to play for the USMNT (he stayed on, and the U.S. lost to the Netherlands in the round of 16).
His parents subsequently got involved in a messy affair that sent the US Soccer sphere into crisis. Although Reyna himself had no apparent involvement, it tarnished his reputation. There were a couple of USMNT rebirths after that – including a fine showing in the 2024 Nations League finals win and Copa America appearance. But it was otherwise his defining moment in a U.S. shirt.
And he has never really recovered at club level, either. From the start of 2023, Reyna was effectively used as a substitute for Dortmund, struggling to establish himself as the team threw away the title and then cycled through various managers. In 2024, he was loaned out to struggling Nottingham Forest, a disastrous move that yielded just one goal contribution in 10 matches. Since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, he has played just 341 minutes of club football.
There is no singular reason for Reyna’s struggles. Footballers are people, and people are complex. A series of on- and off-field factors can complicate their lives at any given time. Some have blamed Reyna’s ego – and there might be grounds for that, given his supposed 2022 World Cup antics.
Others have pointed out the fact that Dortmund haven’t had any stability in the dugout, and struggled on the pitch last season. That would leave little room for experimentation or rebuilding. Kovac, when he was appointed in January 2025 with Dortmund in 11th place, did not have the luxury to tinker. He found his side and secured Champions League qualification. Sentimentality was never going to be an option.
And then there are the injuries. Since 2021, Reyna has sustained at least eight different muscular issues. He has missed a total of 80 games due to those knocks. Three of them have been roughly the same injury to his right hamstring. Over the same period, Reyna’s distance covered and running numbers plummeted.
During the Club World Cup, for example, Reyna was the 19th-quickest player in the Dortmund side, with goalkeeper Gregor Kobel registering faster sprints. Reyna has never relied on pace, but it does not take a genius to figure out that there might be something going on – especially given the recurrent injury to a muscle so crucial to stretching his legs.
That’s not conducive to a high-intensity, high-pressing league such as the Bundesliga. It doesn’t really work anywhere where the game might be remotely quick.
So, where to now? Look at Reyna and its easy to see why he would be a perfect fit for MLS. The reasons are multiple and hard to deny. The most obvious, is his quality. A fit Reyna would comfortably be a top five player in the league, in the mix with Riqui Puig, Evander and Lucho Acosta for the best attacking players not named Lionel Messi. His understanding of space, dribbling ability and flair for the dramatic would make him a difference maker.
The main issue for Reyna in the Bundesliga, in particular, is his lack of work rate. Dig into the numbers, and this is a pretty poor defensive player. According to FBRef he is in the 1st percentile in interceptions, 15th in tackles, and 32nd in blocks among all attacking midfielders in the world. There are, statistically, very few worse defenders. That just won’t cut it in a high intensity league.
Well, welcome to MLS, where you can afford to be a bit of a passenger. DPs in MLS are interesting things, usually difference makers in attack who are so good going one way that they don’t really have to worry about the other. Puig – perhaps the most obvious comparison to Reyna – is a prime example. His attacking numbers before an injury last year were the second best in the league. His defensive numbers were quite comfortably the worst. If Messi didn’t play here, he would have been MVP.
And that’s the thing: MLS still loves its attacking midfielders. It is one of those rare leagues that still allows for the kind of maverick individual to play in the middle of everything and simply make things happen. There are countless low-effort, high impact players who have made fine careers in North America by talent alone.
Reyna is not necessarily lazy, but he would have a platform to be able to hone the stuff he is good at – and allow others around him to pick up a little of the defensive load. There is, from the league’s perspective, a certain appeal, too. MLS academies are getting very good at developing American talent. The issue is, they’re very good at shipping all of them off to Europe for a nice juicy transfer fee.
There isn’t a transcendent American star in the league. Reyna could quite comfortably be that player.
The bad news for the MLS truthers is that there seems to be gathering steam that a Serie A move is possible. There have been reports that Reyna and Parma are in talks over a transfer, with a three-year contract on the table.
There are a few interesting things here. Three years is a short contract for a 22-year-old, and $7M is a very low fee. It would seem a punt on a player that the Serie A side don’t really trust. You don’t offer a three year contract to someone you consider part of your long-term plans – especially a player in his early 20s.
Parma would also be a baffling fit. Reyna probably needs to play for a team that keeps the ball and has a solid array of attacking talent he can combine with in the final-third. Last year, Parma narrowly avoided relegation, conceded more than they scored, and had just 44.2 percent possession. Only one player scored more than six goals in the league. That was 21-year-old Ange-Yoan Bonny, who now plays for Inter.
They are also a club in a state of flux – five of their starting XI from last year have left the club. They are going to be led by Carlos Cuesta, who was a fine assistant at Arsenal. But he is just 29 years old, and taking on his first head coaching job. This whole thing reeks of relegation.
And more broadly, Serie A is a difficult league for playmakers. This is a division of bruising center-backs, hard working center midfielders and imposing No. 9s. There aren’t No. 10s here. The closest is perhaps fellow American Christian Pulisic, but even he is more effective out wide.
Sure, historically, the league has been kind to footballers hoping for a late career revival. But those are seasoned vets who have cut their teeth around the world. What evidence is there that Reyna is ready? Only the Premier League would be a poorer fit – and Reyna knows all too well how bad that can get.
Reyna managed a few minutes for the USMNT during March’s disastrous Nations League finals campaign. He turned in a middling cameo against Canada. But Mauricio Pochettino emphasized that he hopes to see more out of Reyna – and thinks he could be in the picture by the 2026 World Cup:
“I am so honest and what I think I see is this important player, who was also an important player in the past. I think it’s a player we need to recover and put to the same level as the rest of the players to have the possibility to compete in the World Cup,” he said.
Under previous U.S. managers, MLS might be something of a non-starter. By the end of his tenure, Berhalter was basically leaning on the same group of European guys – plus one or two others. Pochettino, though, has made it abundantly clear that there will be space for MLS in his squads. His Gold Cup roster, in fact, almost entirely consisted of domestic talent – and they punched a little bit above their weight over the summer.
The Argentine certainly has his critics, but his squad selection so far suggests that he is open to competition, and is willing to reward those who perform well, no matter where they play their club football.
For Reyna and MLS, that would only be a good thing. What once was a league where USMNT dreams go to die might be an ideal outlet for Reyna to prove himself for the national team. Fabio Capello famously told David Beckham that he had to leave LA Galaxy if he wanted to play for England in the 2010 World Cup. Reyna’s most obvious move to play for the U.S. on home soil in 2026 might be to do the opposite.
The good news here, for Reyna’s career, at least, is that he finally looks set to leave Dortmund. This is something that has needed to happen for years. He is too good, too full of potential to sit on the bench and watch while his teammates toil in the Champions League.
Sure, there are complicating factors. He’s collecting a cool $50,000 per week in Germany. Champions League football has its appeals. Dortmund is probably a very nice place to play football – and has a certain mythology to it that other clubs simply cannot reach.
But at this point, that needs to be cast aside. Reyna is 22, and far too talented not to be playing football on a regular cadence. This might be different if he were coming towards the end of his career, and was the kind of veteran glue guy that clubs love. But the reality is Reyna is a good footballer who just needs a new start somewhere.
The end game does not necessarily have to be a starring role on the USMNT, or Champions League glory. Instead, Reyna might have to drop down in order to go back up. At his age, he could be a fine addition to any MLS club with cash to spare, and quite comfortably earn a move back to Europe – if that is indeed the end goal.
Of course, ego also plays a role. Reyna was playing Champions League football as a teenager. He might believe he is above MLS, or anywhere that isn’t one of Europe’s top five leagues.
Football is remarkably quick to make assumptions about what players want. It is impossible to get into Reyna’s head. But if he is to move – and he really should – an American transfer might just be the perfect place for him to resurrect his career. And there shouldn’t be any shame in that.
