Inside the Complicated Decline of Gio Reyna

Of all the career arcs contained within the so-called golden generation of the United States men’s national team, none have frustrated fans more than that of Gio Reyna.

Son of USMNT legend Claudio Reyna, Gio emerged in his late teens at Borussia Dortmund with the reputation of having unmatched technical ability among American players.

By his age-17 season, he was getting regular games and starts in the German Bundesliga, completing the 2020-21 campaign with four goals and five assists in 32 league appearances. And even as late as the 2022-23 campaign, he was productive when used, scoring seven goals in 22 league games played mostly off the bench.

But that’s also when a tawdry saga erupted involving both his family and that of U.S. national team manager Gregg Berhalter’s — beginning with Berhalter’s not-so-off-the-record revelation that Reyna had nearly been dismissed from the 2022 World Cup squad.

When that finally blew over, Reyna was welcomed back to the USMNT just in time to suffer the most traumatic injury of a career already filled with them: a hairline fibula fracture sustained while playing for the U.S. during the 2022-23 Concacaf Nations League.

Even after recovering from injury, he has been on Dortmund’s periphery ever since. And now at age 22 — when some college-based American prospects are still just wetting their feet in the pro game — Reyna has finally moved on to Borussia Monchengladbach in the hope that a change of scenery will bring a performance rebound in time for next summer’s FIFA World Cup on American soil.

Don’t hold your breath. And don’t automatically blame Gio if it doesn’t work out.

The aforementioned scandal — which was extremely unflattering to parents Claudio and Danielle — is likely a red herring to those searching for the real explanation for Reyna’s decline.

The data suggests Reyna’s injury history is the more likely true culprit, one that has already resulted in 498 days of total time missed over a six-year pro career, according to Transfermarkt. That includes missing more than half of the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, largely because of the fibula fracture and a previous hamstring injury before that.

As RealGM wrote earlier this year, both Reyna’s top speed and number of sprints per match have decreased steadily in successive seasons at Dortmund while absorbing that wear and tear.

Some read that data and consider it another sign of a player not fully invested in his craft. But those who know the history of the game — one that includes scores of young talents whose abilities were lessened and eventually shortened by traumatic leg injuries — should also know it could very well be about a decline in Reyna’s physical capacity.

That’s true even of Reyna sprinting fewer times per match. If you’re far less likely to win the sprint against an opposing player, sprinting itself becomes a far less effective and intelligent strategy, and it only empties your energy reserves.

In part because of Gio Reyna’s private behavior in Qatar — and maybe even more so because of his parents’ poor conduct — fans have leapt to conclusions about mentality instead. But much like a bad alternator that drains a car battery, we often want the simpler explanation (the battery) because the fix is easier and less costly.

Maybe Reyna’s body can still recover with prolonged better health. To that end, Monchengladbach is a better club for him than Dortmund, given that the club won’t be competing in Europe and will primarily face only weekly league competition.

All American fans should be rooting for that. Because if Reyna could return to the caliber of player he was for Dortmund in 2020-21, and in brief flourishes with the U.S. national team in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, he instantly improves the squad.

Hope for that. But don’t expect it. And remember: There could be more than one explanation.