About Gio Reyna: it’s time to have an adult conversation

Miscast? Continually mistreated? ... At some point, don't we have to consider another possibility?

I just finished reading the latest Gio Reyna apology piece. The latest huffy piece that essentially paints the 21-year-old American attacker as a victim.

Hasn’t that been the implied message about Reyna for years now? That he’s always mistreated or miscast? Fans certainly seem to feel that way. That’s OK; as fans, they get to be emotional about these things, with no requirement for rationality. I mean, #FreeGio is an actual thing on social media.

Actual media should probably do a little better - and yet we’re never far away from the next volley of half-assed punditry that points the needle of fault toward clubs and coaches. 

Here’s what one well-read site had to say about Reyna this week: “The on-loan Borussia Dortmund midfielder hasn’t got anywhere near the playing time he needs so far [at Nottingham Forest].” 

I’m not linking to the piece because the writer isn’t here to defend himself, and the point here isn’t to “gotcha” anybody. But …

Breaking news: Coaches want their teams to win!

And at some point, if enough coaches don’t think Reyna will help elevate their side, that he isn’t someone to help achieve the results that will keep their paychecks coming, we’ll have to consider another possibility. It’s a notion that may make the blindly loyal U.S. Soccer supporters fall over backward in their enraged disgust: that much of this is the player’s fault.

That “coaches want to win” isn’t breaking news, of course. That’s sarcasm for effect. But that particular time-tested dose of inconvenient truth seems to get conveniently erased in the ongoing conversations about Reyna.

So, let’s have a more honest conversation about him, an adult conversation about a guy who is undeniably talented.

As Reyna broke through at Dortmund, it was quite reasonable to get excited. At just 17 years old he was getting into matches at a premier European address. Yes, Dortmund is a club that likes to build around young players, but that doesn’t diminish the accomplishment. 

But you probably know the Reyna story from there. Injuries piled up and stalled the climb at various points. He’s never quite broken through to long-term, sure-starter status, which was particularly troubling this season at Dortmund. After excelling in something of a super sub role last year, this season seemed to be his time to shine at Borussia’s Signal Iduna Park.  And yet …

He just never got regular minutes. So off he goes on loan to Nottingham Forest, a club desperate to climb out of the relegation mire. A month in, and still we wait … 

Oh! There was an agent change along the way. Which does happen; players do switch representation. Still, it adds to the ongoing narrative. 

All of this after the Gregg Berhalter kerfuffle. On that one, public sentiment seemed to side with the player – never mind that Reyna’s me-first behavior became so petulant,  teammates were very close to asking that he be sent home from Qatar. No reason to re-litigate that one and the weird turns that it took. Berhalter made an honest mistake in letting that episode find public space, but too many people took that opportunity to excuse the player’s immaturity.  

Now he’s at Nottingham Forest, playing for Nuno Espirito Santo, a manager well respected for his time at Wolverhampton (although he didn’t excel similarly at his next stop, Tottenham.) And alarm bells are ringing anew that Reyna isn’t being set up for summer U.S. national team success, as if that’s the club’s or the manager’s responsibility. Two words: it ain’t.

Here’s the gist: Talent buys you opportunities. It buys you some degree of grace. Because you have talent, you’ll surely get your share of chances. It’s still on you to take advantage of those opportunities. 

I hear the Reyna supporters now. “But he needs games! How can he prove himself if he can’t get on the field?”

When you haven’t proven yourself on the field lately, upon a change of address it’s up to you to prove yourself in training. You earn it, just like anyone else. You earn the trust of coaches AND teammates. It’s never about the “minutes he needs.” It’s always going to be about the minutes he earns.

I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way; at least some U.S. Soccer supporters understand a player can be talented, but still have some growing up to do

Yes, there are sometimes tricky politics with loan players. And, yes, there might be a logjam of similarly skilled talent that can reduce starts or playing time. And perhaps Nottingham Forest wasn’t the ideal fit. But truly, how many times does a player land at the perfect club, at the perfect time, playing for the ideal manager who knows just how to elicit the tippy top level of individual performance? It happens – just not that often.

At some point, people might have to come to a different conclusion about Reyna, one that we’ve certainly seen before: that he’s a fabulously talented individual who still has some growing to do professionally. He’s someone who hasn’t quite sorted out the best practices of being a great teammate and, overall, the best ways to be an asset for his clubs. He’s just 21. There’s time.

But if people are always in his ear about how he’s being miscast, mistreated or mishandled by the wrong agent, etc., he’ll turn 22 and then 24 and then 26 and so on … and we’ll still be tapping our fingers on the table waiting for all that potential to be magically fulfilled. 

Unless your name is Messi or Mbappe or you’re generally in the top 1-2 percent of global soccer talent, here’s what every player eventually must learn: YOU have to find the ways to fit into a team. It’s probably never going to be the other way around – no matter how many fans or people around you want it to be that way.