Gregg Berhalter says he’s ‘looking forward to’ conversations with Gio Reyna
Gregg Berhalter hasn't spoken to Gio Reyna since the 2022 World Cup, he told Vanity Fair in an interview that published Tuesday. But the U.S. men's national team coach said on Wednesday that he is eager to chat with the 20-year-old attacker as soon as Reyna is healthy enough to rejoin the American squad.
Reyna, who plays for German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, is recovering from a leg injury and therefore wasn't included on Berhalter's 24-player roster for September friendlies against Asian Football Confederation members Uzbekistan and Oman. But Reyna could be healthy in time for two higher-profile exhibition games in October, against regular World Cup participant Ghana and four-time champion Germany.
"I look forward to having conversations with him," Berhalter said of Reyna on Zoom conference with reporters shortly after the squad was announced. "I look forward to watching his progress and hopefully him getting back on the field and then, for us, hopefully being able to include him in the October camp against two good opponents."
There's nothing unusual about any of that. But the dynamic between Berhalter and Reyna isn't normal and hasn't been since last December, when Berhalter revealed that he nearly sent a player — later reported to be Reyna — home from last year's World Cup in Qatar because of a poor attitude and training habits.
That disclosure, which wasn't intended for public consumption but, perhaps inevitably, leaked anyway, so angered Reyna's parents, former national teamers Claudio and Danielle Reyna, that they reported to U.S. Soccer a decades old domestic incident between Berhalter and his now-wife that an independent investigation determined later was an effort to end the coach's tenure with the USMNT.
It didn't work. Berhalter was rehired six months later, in June, at which time he acknowledged that the relationship with the younger Reyna would take time and effort to repair. Those complexities, combined with Reyna's latest injury, have apparently prevented the process from gaining any real traction so far.
"It's just understanding sensitivities around it," Berhalter said Wednesday when asked by FOX Sports how he would eventually bury the hatchet and move forward with Reyna "the right way," as he put it to Vanity Fair.
"He's a young player," Berhalter said. "I think for everyone involved, it's been a lot for the last six months, and we just want to do it in the best possible way to put him in position to help the team in a way that we know he can."
Berhalter said previously that he regretted discussing with outsiders, even in what was ostensibly a private setting, the internal team matter that led to the drama with the Reynas. On Wednesday, Berhalter revealed that he told his team the same thing at the time.
"I sent a note to each and every player and apologized for this getting out in the way that it did," Berhalter said. "It was never about names, it was more of an example of our strong team culture. And I felt that if it hurt one player, then it's worth apologizing to the entire group."
Most of that group seems delighted that the coach will soon be back on the USMNT sideline. During his hiatus and before he was re-signed, team leaders such as Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah publicly backed Berhalter to return. Privately, their support was even more influential. After reintroducing Berhalter at a press conference in Las Vegas on June 16, U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker admitted that "the players were actually part of this process all the way through."
"We're committed to every single player in this player pool," Berhalter said Wednesday. "It's about how do we maximize communication with them and target it in a way that we're getting the most out of each and every player?"
Still, Reyna's recent history with Berhalter makes him a unique case. Berhalter will probably have to handle him a little differently, at least at first. It's something he seems to understand.
"For this, it's just being a little bit more thoughtful, a little bit more sensitive to the past."
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
