Gio Reyna spent last week in a Connecticut parking lot outside a smoothie shop, waiting with his wife, Chloe, to hear whether he had made Team USA’s World Cup roster. When the call came, Reyna was told he was in. He rang his parents soon after.
On Tuesday in Manhattan, Mauricio Pochettino made the decision official and put Reyna among the 26 players he will take to the 2026 World Cup. Pochettino, who has managed Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, said Reyna has “amazing talent and experience” and added, “I really trust in him.”
For Reyna, 20 years old at the 2022 World Cup, the selection closes a difficult stretch that began when he was still seen as one of the top young American players in the game. He trained with Borussia Dortmund in Germany as a teenager and arrived at the 2022 tournament with high expectations, but he played sparingly. Questions swirled then about his effort, attitude and lack of fitness, and the fallout was not limited to the field.
Two years later, Gregg Berhalter was fired after a poor showing in the Copa América and Pochettino took over. That change gave Reyna a second path back into the national team picture, but it did not erase the memory of Qatar or the scrutiny that followed. His name had become tied to a broader dispute involving his parents and Berhalter, and his club career since then had not gone to plan at Dortmund, Nottingham Forest or Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Reyna made clear on Tuesday that he did not want to reopen the 2022 tournament. Asked whether he had reflected on it, he said, “Reflect? I guess,” then added, “It was a while ago. But yeah, it happened. It is what it is.” When asked whether he was disappointed that he did not play more, he answered, “I mean, of course,” and said, “Everyone wants to play every minute of every game. But sometimes it doesn't work like that.”
He also sounded as if he had little interest in measuring himself against the player he was four years ago. Asked how different he was now, Reyna said, “Uhh, not much, I guess,” before adding, “It's obviously in the past.” What changed more than anything, he suggested, was the team around him. “There's so many players who have developed,” he said. “It's really competitive.”
That competition is part of what makes his inclusion notable. Pochettino did not have to bring Reyna back, especially after a cycle in which so much had gone wrong for both player and program. Instead, he chose him anyway, betting that the talent still outweighs the history. Reyna said he is ready for whatever role comes with it. “Whatever's called for by me, I'll be willing to help,” he said, adding that he wants to help the team in any way possible.
For a player once viewed as a teenager's answer to American soccer’s future, the roster spot is both a reset and a test. Reyna and the U.S. will arrive at the 2026 World Cup older, deeper and carrying far more baggage than they did in 2022. “We're all older,” he said. “We've matured as people and as players.”
