United States men’s national soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino has looked forward to having Gio Reyna back in the squad. But he also laid out clear expectations for the 22-year-old Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder.
“If a player doesn’t behave well,” Pochettino told me, “he’s not going to be with us.”
Gio Reyna is back in the mix with the U.S. men’s team. (Photo by John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
Reyna was surprisingly recalled by Pochettino last week for the Americans’ final pre-World Cup tuneups of 2025, against Paraguay on Friday and Nov. 18 vs. Uruguay. The former prodigy has logged a meager 146 minutes across all competitions for ‘Gladbach this season, with no goals or assists.
Reyna, who has been beset by injury throughout his young career, has not played an entire match at club level since March 2022. He’s made just one appearance for the U.S. under Pochettino, a 21-minute cameo off the bench in a March loss to Canada in the Concacaf Nations League third-place match.
And, of course, Reyna’s return and some recent interviews he’s done have brought back into the spotlight that infamous incident at the 2022 World Cup that roiled two of the most prominent families in American soccer.
“We are going to make very clear in [Reyna’s] case that the past is in the past,” Pochettino added. “Now we give the opportunity to this guy to show that he’s more mature, and behave in the way that we expect and then perform.”
How Berhalter-Reyna saga defined ’22 World Cup
If you recall, Reyna is the son of two-time U.S. World Cup captain Claudio Reyna and former women’s national team winger Danielle Egan. And he was infamously almost sent home midway through the 2022 World Cup by then-coach Gregg Berhalter.
A week after the USMNT’s round of 16 elimination by the Netherlands in Qatar, The Athletic reported that Reyna “showed an alarming lack of effort in training” before and after U.S.’s opening match, “threw his shin guards after not being subbed” into that 1-1 tie with Wales and was confronted by several veteran teammates who were frustrated by his “lack of intensity” during the sessions.
Gio Reyna and former USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter at the 2022 World Cup. (Photo by Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Berhalter spoke about the situation at a conference in New York days after the Americans returned home. What was supposed to be an off-the-record discussion quickly leaked into the public sphere.
“In this last World Cup, we had a player that was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field,” Berhalter said without specifically naming Reyna. “One of 26 players, so it stood out. As a staff, we sat together for hours deliberating what we were going to do with this player.
“We were ready to book a plane ticket home — that’s how extreme it was,” Berhalter went on. “What it came down to was, we’re going to have one more conversation with him, and part of the conversation was how we’re going to behave from here out. There aren’t going to be any more infractions.”
Reyna apologized to his teammates. But the saga exploded as an international news story after Reyna’s parents informed the U.S. Soccer Federation that Berhalter had physically assaulted his now-wife three decades earlier, when they and Egan were freshmen soccer players at the University of North Carolina. U.S. Soccer eventually rehired Berhalter following an independent investigation into the incident. Berhalter was fired just over a year later following the USMNT’s group stage ouster at the 2024 Copa América. He was replaced by Pochettino last fall.
Gio Reyna’s last appearance of the USMNT came in March. (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
Even before being summoned this month by the former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager, Reyna made news after the Associated Press asked him if he’d do things differently in Qatar if given the chance.
“Maybe in certain ways,” he said, adding that he “was just upset that, you know, I wasn’t really playing.”
“I’m not just going to sort of sit here and take all the blame for something that was made out to be completely my fault, which I believe it wasn’t, and also my family’s, too.”
Reyna made similar comments in another recent interview.
“It’s hard to really say what would anyone have done different, but I don’t know,” Reyna told Men in Blazers. “Maybe people would have, maybe people wouldn’t. But to me, it doesn’t even matter at this point. And I don’t really think it should to anybody else.”
‘If you don’t behave well you can’t perform’
During a 15-year coaching career that also included a Champions League final appearance with Tottenham, Pochettino has worked with some of the biggest stars in the global game. Since being hired as U.S. boss 14 months ago, he’s also often spoken about the importance of his players sacrificing personal ambitions for the collective good.
“[Lionel] Messi or [Kylian] Mbappé or Neymar were very good teammates,” Pochettino said. “They have a good balance between the talent and the ego. And on the pitch, they’re the best. But if you have a massive ego, and you behave badly and on the pitch you don’t perform, what is the point of having that player in the squad?”
Having coached the likes of Neymar and Mbappé and Messi at PSG, Pochettino has dealt with top talent and big egos. (Getty Images)
The Argentine said he won’t hold the Qatar incident against Reyna.
“Gio is a young guy who is talented,” Pochettino told me. “We cannot say that this guy or another needs to disappear because he didn’t behave. We always need to give the chance. But at the same time, they need to show what we expect from them.
“Sometimes you can be surprised,” he continued. “Because people sometimes need to know what to do. Sometimes players behave badly because we [coaches], as leaders, didn’t make clear what we expect. But now it’s up to them. I don’t care about what happened in the past. I think it’s important to provide opportunity to everyone.”
At that point, it’s up to the player.
“If you don’t behave well you can’t perform, because the team needs to work in a perfect symphony,” Pochettino said. “The synergy needs to be perfect. If not, we’re not going to have the chance to be successful. We have to have the same energy as a team to fight. Because it’s not only about the starting 11. You can be on the bench and then enter the pitch and be the most important player.”
