Gio Reyna had 'positive' meeting with interim USMNT coach Anthony Hudson
Gio Reyna is arguably the most talented player in the United States men's national team's player pool. He's also been the team's most controversial player over the last few months.
At first, it was Reyna's lack of playing time at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar that created discourse among U.S. Soccer fans, a testament to the level of excitement there is surrounding the 20-year-old's ability. But when former USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter made comments about Reyna's behavior at the World Cup during a leadership conference in December, it snowballed into an incident involving Reyna's parents and Berhalter.
What the future looks like for Reyna with the USMNT remains unclear, but in a recent interview with The Athletic, interim head coach Anthony Hudson revealed he had a "positive" meeting with Reyna in Germany ahead of the Americans' Nations League matchups against Grenada and El Salvador later this month.
"I think it was important for whoever is in this role, whether it’s me or someone else, the important thing now is to go and address the situation in Germany," Hudson said. "It would be negligent of anyone who is in this role not to go and do that because he’s an important player and we need to find a solution. He is a talented, important player, a young player, and it needed to be addressed.
"The way I look at it is, in [the World Cup] camp, this happened. Us as a staff made a decision to take action and there was a response from the player — a positive response. I’m not condoning anything that’s happened, but it was more on a human level to go and see how he was, as a young kid who has been through a lot."
Reyna was an unused substitute during Borussia Dortmund's 2-1 win over RB Leipzig on Friday, but his run of form in January — when he scored three goals in three matches — and his untapped potential is reason enough for Hudson to call him up to the squad later this month.
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