Gio Reyna’s Season of Frustration

Reyna was supposed to take his game to the next level in 2021–22, but the continued fallout from his injury in the U.S.'s first World Cup qualifier has derailed his campaign.

This was supposed to be the next-level season for Gio Reyna. 

He had inherited Jadon Sancho's No. 7 at Borussia Dortmund. He scored goals in two of the first three games of the season. His "American Dream" nickname, bestowed upon him by Erling Haaland, was looking more and more fitting. 

"I think everybody saw the bits of what I can do last season, but I guess to put it through 40-plus games this season and try to consistently put more good performances in," Reyna said of his goals for the year ahead in preseason. "Really just try to be a little more consistent, try to take my game to the next level and improve in any way possible."

The injury gods have not allowed him to make that possible. A hamstring injury suffered in the U.S.'s first World Cup qualifier, Sept. 2 in El Salvador, snowballed into something more serious than initially anticipated. Reyna finally returned to action on Feb. 6, more than five months later. Yet in his first start for Dortmund since late August, a span of 177 days, Reyna was hurt again, appearing to reaggravate the very injury that sidelined him that whole time. The scenes of him limping off just half an hour into Sunday's match vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach were particularly crushing. If there's a reprieve, it came in the form of his prognosis. Dortmund said Monday that Reyna avoided a major injury and should be able to rejoin training within two weeks, even including a "thank god" in the club's injury update.

“Gio is really upset. You can see it in the pictures,” Dortmund coach Marco Rose said after his side's 6–0 win. “He’s just back from injury and was really in good shape. I was, we were all happy that he was back. It was important for us to have him on the field with the quality he has.

“We’ll get the boy back and we’ll give him every support because we need him, because he’s an outstanding athlete, a great person.”

Eibner-Pressefoto/Gabriel Boia/Imago Images

With the clouds beginning to clear on his dark period—at the time, anyway—Reyna had been in the midst of a unique few days. On Thursday, he came off the bench in Dortmund's Europa League loss to Rangers, a club for which his father, Claudio, played and which is now managed by Giovanni van Bronckhorst (the man for whom Reyna is named) and features one of Reyna's former NYCFC academy teammates, James Sands. Sunday, Dortmund's match vs. Mönchengladbach pitted Reyna against another former NYCFC academy mate and his good friend, Joe Scally.

“We missed out that first time back in October, to fight against each other," Scally said before Sunday's match. "But we’ve been talking about it now for basically a year, since I came over to Germany. We’re ready for the jersey change after the game and everything. He was at my house two days ago, so we were just talking about it."

As has been the case for the last half year, though, things didn't exactly go to plan, and it's very much looking like a lost season for one of the U.S.'s brightest lights.

If Reyna needs a friendly ear after going through what he has endured, there's a very knowledgeable one among his U.S. brethren. Tim Weah, the player who has risen to the occasion in Reyna's absence throughout qualifying, experienced something similar in 2019–20. He missed the first half of that season for Lille with an injury, came back after six months and then lasted 10 minutes in his return before being injured again. It ended his season and tested his resolve.

“That happening was kind of a test of my mental strength,” Weah told Sports Illustrated last month. “It was just a heartbreak. I had to be mentally strong, and I just knew I had to stay focused and get back into work.”

Fortunately for Reyna, his setback is not anything to the extent of that of Weah, who also didn't have a World Cup looming months down the road at the time of his ordeal. Reyna still has ample time to recover to reclaim his place in the U.S. squad—better for this to occur in February as opposed to May or later in the summer, for instance—and there's a very real world that exists in which this is just largely a lost season for his club and not an entirely lost cycle for the national team. The mental side of things and the fear that another setback could be in the offing may wind up being the toughest part of what occurred Sunday. But a clean bill of health and a ticket to Qatar in the fall would make the ordeal of the last six months, and whatever is set to follow, all the more palatable.

If Reyna is not able to return for the U.S. in four weeks’ time, his guile and temperament will be missed in the Estadio Azteca cauldron. Reyna was immense in the Concacaf Nations League final vs. Mexico last June and would've figured to be a key component of the game plan for the March 24 showdown in Mexico City had he been fully fit. Instead, that place on the U.S. attack could fall once again to the likes of Weah and the in-form Brenden Aaronson, who have made the most of their opportunities in the U.S. attack in Reyna's absence.

Both country and club have had to account for Reyna's extended unavailability over the last half year, wondering what might have been had injury not derailed the initial plan. That'll be the case for a little bit longer, even if, on the surface, it looked like it could be considerably worse.

"[Reyna] made a bright start to this season and produced some outstanding displays in the diamond," Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl said at the start of the new year. "He moves cleverly between the lines, but also cuts inside from wide positions, poses a goal threat and has a slyness about him. We would like to have him back."

A few weeks later, Kehl is left wishing for the same thing once again.