Claudio Reyna (born July 20, 1973 in Livingston, New Jersey) is an American soccer player. He was the captain of the U.S. national team before retiring from international soccer immediately following the USA's exit from the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Reyna currently plays for Red Bull New York of Major League Soccer, where he is team captain.
Early life
Reyna's father, a professional soccer player from Argentina, moved to the United States in 1968. He settled in New Jersey where he married a Portuguese American woman and raised a family. Reyna gained his love for the game from his father. Reyna would go on to become an outstanding youth player, attending Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in New Jersey as a teammate of Gregg Berhalter. He graduated from St. Benedict's in 1991. During Reyna's three years with the team, St Benedict's went undefeated (65-0) while Reyna was named as the only two-time Parade Magazine's national high school Player of the Year.
Highly recruited out of high school, Reyna elected to attend the University of Virginia from 1991-1993 on a full ride scholarship. While at Virginia, he spent three seasons on the men's soccer team, coached by former U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena. The Cavaliers would go on to win the NCAA championship each of his three seasons. On an individual level, Reyna won the Hermann Trophy in 1993 and the MAC Award in 1992 and 1993; and was named the 1992 and 1993 Soccer America Player of the Year. In 2000, the magazine placed him on its Team of the Century and named him the male player of the century.
Professional club career
On August 8, 1994, Reyna signed with German Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen after playing in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He had difficulty finding playing time with the Leverkusen first team, making only 5 appearances. Leverkusen loaned Reyna to fellow Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg in July 1997. He quickly established himself in Wolfsburg's first team where he became the first American to captain a major European club.
He was half way through his second year with Wolfsburg when Scottish Premier League club Rangers expressed an interest in Reyna. On April 1, 1999, Rangers paid $826,400 to Wolfsburg and $2.76 million to Leverkusen for Reyna. Reyna would remain with Rangers until December 2001. Despite building his reputation on the national team as a creative midfielder, he spent most of his years at Rangers playing either defensive midfield or right back. From Rangers, he transferred to Premiership side Sunderland.
In October 2002, he injured the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, keeping him out of action for the rest of the 2002-2003 season. With Sunderland's relegation that season they could not afford Reyna's high wage demands, and the Black Cats sold him to Manchester City in the 2003 off-season. Reyna's time at Manchester City was frequently punctuated by injury, restricting him to 30 appearances in his first season with the club, and causing him to miss six months of the 2004-05 season. In three and a half seasons at the City of Manchester Stadium, Reyna made 87 appearances, scoring 4 goals.
On 11 January, 2007, Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce announced that the club had agreed to terminate Reyna's contract with a view to a move to Major League Soccer for family reasons. This was finalised on 23 January 2007.Man City agree to release Reyna On January 24, Reyna signed with New York Red Bulls, where he rejoined his former University of Virginia and US National Team head coach Bruce Arena. As expected by most, Arena awarded him the captaincy of the squad.
National team
As a U.S. national player, Reyna got his first cap against Norway on January 15, 1994. He was a member of the team at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, but did not play due to injury. Reyna did play in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.
In 2002, despite sitting out the opening 3-2 upset against Portugal due to injury, he was a key contributor in the next three US games -- a tie against South Korea, a loss to Poland, and a win over CONCACAF rival Mexico. In the quarterfinals, the U.S. lost to eventual runner-up Germany. He became the first American ever named as a starter on the World Cup's all-tournament team. In 2006, Reyna again captained the United States into the World Cup. Trailing 1-0 in the opener against the Czech Republic, Reyna fired a 30-yard shot that bounced off the post, the best American chance in the game. In the must-win final group game against Ghana, Reyna was stripped of the ball by Haminu Dramani in front of goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who was helpless to stop Ghana from taking the lead. Apparently injured on the play, Reyna was subbed out of the crucial match after just 40 minutes with the U.S. a goal behind. With Reyna on the sidelines, the Americans pressed forward confidently, scoring an equalizer three minutes later through Clint Dempsey before losing on a controversial penalty kick.
Reyna also represented his country at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
On June 23, 2006, the day after the U.S. was eliminated from the World Cup, Reyna announced his retirement from the national team. He ended his career with 112 caps, 8 goals and 12 assists.
Though he has retired from the national team, Reyna has stated that he would consider coming out of said retirement for a competitive match (Gold Cup, World Cup qualifiers) should the U.S. have an emergency situation in midfield.
In Britain, he was occasionally referred to as Captain America because of his status as captain of the U.S. national team. .
Personal life
Reyna married Danielle Egan, then a member of the United States women's national soccer team, in July 1997, one week after attending the FIFA All-Star Game in Hong Kong and two weeks after the U.S. team’s World Cup qualifier in El Salvador. They have two children: Jack, who was born in 1999, and Giovanni, who was born in 2002 and he lives on Long Island N,Y,
Footnotes
External links
- Claudio Reyna Profile at FootballDatabase
- Claudio Reyna articles on Yanks Abroad
- Claudio Reyna's U.S. Olympic Team bio
- Leverkusen who's who
- Sam's Army Profile
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Argentine-Americans
Other pages about Argentine Americans
-Albert Hammond, Jr. -Alex Taylor -Andres Cantor -Andres Oppenheimer -Angelo DiBernardo -Argentine American -Ariel Dorfman -Bruno Vain -Cesar Pelli -Claudio Reyna -Efrain Chacurian -Fernando Caldeiro -Ignacio Serricchio -Ines Rivero -JD Natasha -Luis Palau -Marcelo Balboa -Martin Gramatica -Pablo Kleinman -Pablo Mastroeni -Paul DiBernardo -Paz Lenchantin -Richard Revesz -Rodolfo Valentin -Veronica Prego
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Claudio_Reyna
