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Giovanni Reyna has told ESPN’s Sam Borden he was never going to turn his back on the USMNT and believes a potential partnership with Christian Pulisic could last more than a decade at international level.
Reyna, 17, has impressed for Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund and is one of a number of promising U.S. talents playing in Europe at present, including Pulisic at Premier League side Chelsea.
When Reyna made his first-team debut for Dortmund in January 2020, reports suggested England were keen to sound him out about declaring for them instead of the USMNT. But despite qualifying for England through his father, the 112-cap USMNT international Claudio, Gio has said he was only ever going to follow in Claudio’s footsteps and play for the U.S.
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“I’ve played for the U.S. my whole life and I’ve been in the youth national teams, my dad played for the U.S. so if I played for another country, it wouldn’t feel right,” Reyna told ESPN’s Sam Borden during a wide-ranging interview that is part of an SC: Featured profile set to air on Aug. 30. The USMNT hopeful also speaks about his experiences during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as settling in at Dortmund alongside Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho.
“U.S.A is my home country, I lived here most of my life but yeah, it was always U.S.A., it was never really a discussion,” Reyna said.
Dortmund’s rising star was set to make his international debut back in March, but fixtures against Netherlands and Wales were cancelled due to COVID-19.
“U.S.A. is my home country, I’m an American kid so, yeah, hopefully, [I] can go into a U.S. camp soon. I’m really excited to meet all those guys,” Reyna said.
With Pulisic at Chelsea, Sergino Dest at Ajax and Weston McKennie at Schalke, coach Gregg Berhalter has a talented group of young players playing across Europe’s top leagues. There is plenty of excitement around Reyna’s potential to link up with Pulisic and he hopes they will develop a partnership that can last more than a decade with the national team.
“I think the idea of us [Pulisic and Reyna] playing together is really exciting which, you know, I think people should start looking at that more than comparing us,” he added.
“If we get our group together and me and Christian playing together, I think can be very exciting for the next, who knows, 10 years or 15 years.”