Borussia Dortmund’s Sporting Director has defended club winger and USMNT player Giovanni Reyna following the bombshell reports of his fractured relationship with Gregg Berhalter.
Reyna hit out at Berhalter for leaking their World Cup row after the US head coach had indirectly revealed that he almost sent the 20-year-old home from Qatar.
BVB’s Sebastian Kehl felt the need to publicly state that the club has never had any issues with the son of former US captain, Claudio Reyna.
Borussia Dortmund’s Sporting Director Sebastian Kehl has come out to defend Gio Reyna, 20
‘We have been very surprised by type of coverage Gio Reyna has been getting in the last few days,’ Kehl told the Deutsche Presse Agentur. ‘After having a really difficult time with several injuries, he has our full support.’
‘We’ve known the lad for many years,’ Kehl added.
‘We’ve known him to be a solid person who delivers professional work and is a valued presence in the locker room. The notion that this is now in doubt after a few days in Qatar is incomprehensible for us and does not accurately reflect Gio Reyna.’
Kehl even went on to say that Borussia Dortmund is ‘looking forward to receiving Gio back in January and continuing our path with him.’
Berhalter previously revealed the USMNT’s concerns about a player that he didn’t name when he spoke last week at the HOW Institute for Society’s Summit on Moral Leadership in New York. Excerpts of his remarks were later published in a newsletter by Charter Works, which analyzes management and workplace trends.
‘In this last World Cup, we had a player that was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field,’ Berhalter was quoted as saying. ‘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 came close to sending a player home from Qatar though he didn’t name individual
Reyna, who played a limited role at World Cup, is the son of ex-USMNT captain Claudio Reyna
‘And 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.’
‘But the other thing we said to him was, you’re going to have to apologize to the group, but it’s going to have to say why you’re apologizing. It’s going to have to go deeper than just ”Guys, I’m sorry,”’ Berhalter went on.
‘And I prepped the leadership group with this. I said, ”OK, this guy’s going to apologize to you as a group, to the whole team.” And what was fantastic in this whole thing is that after he apologized, they stood up one by one and said: ”Listen, it hasn’t been good enough. You haven’t been meeting our expectations of a teammate and we want to see change.” They really took ownership of that process. And from that day on there were no issues with this player.”
While Berhalter didn’t identify the player, several media outlets reported on Monday that it was Reyna, and a person familiar with the matter confirmed the identity to DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity because no announcement was made.
Reyna was made to apologize to the entire USMNT coaching staff and players by Berhalter
ESPN claimed that the squad were asked to vote on whether Reyna should remain within the squad, with the Dortmund youngster being allowed to stay after 13 votes went his way, with 12 members of the squad recommending he left.
The Athletic’s report claimed that ‘multiple sources’ close to the team revealed that Reyna had put in ‘an alarming lack of effort in training’ before the USA’s opening group stage match against Iran, which he was subsequently benched for.
The team also played in a scrimmage against Qatari club Al Gharafa, in which Reyna was described as ‘walking around throughout the game’.
DeAndre Yedlin and Aaron Long are said to have pulled Reyna aside at various points throughout the tournament, urging him to show more effort.
It was then reported that Reyna apologized to the entire team – as described by Berhalter – after which he turned a corner and ‘understood he was part of a collective group’.
Since the end of US’ World Cup campaign, following a 3-1 defeat to Holland in the Round of 16, the 20-year-old has broken his silence on his feud with Berhalter, expressing his disappointment at private matters being made public.
