Claudio Reyna

Early career

In New Jersey, Reyna became a youth player at Jonathan Dayton High School and then transferred to Saint Benedict's Preparatory School, where he was a teammate of Gregg Berhalter and Robert Ducey, before 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 and the Gatorade National Player of the Year. In 1999, he was named by The Star-Ledger as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1990s. Highly recruited out of high school, Reyna elected to attend the University of Virginia from 1991 to 1993 on a full scholarship. While at Virginia, he spent three seasons on the men's soccer team, coached by future U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena. The Cavaliers won the NCAA Championship each of his three seasons. Reyna ultimately made 74 apperances for the Cavaliers, scoring 18 times. 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.

Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg

On August 8, 1994, Reyna signed with German Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen after playing in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He had difficulty finding playing time with the Leverkusen…

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 on home turf, but did not play due to a hamstring injury. Reyna did play in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups. In 2002, despite sitting out the opening 3–2 upset win over Portugal due to injury, he was a key contributor in the next three U.S. 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 was named to the World Cup all-tournament team, the first American to do so. In 2006, Reyna again captained the U.S. at the World Cup in Germany. 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 final group game against Ghana, Reyna suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament when he lost the ball to Haminu Draman who then dribbled in alone and scored Ghana's first goal. 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 international career with 111 caps and eight goals. Reyna also represented the U.S. at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. In Great Britain, he was occasionally referred to as Captain America because of his status as captain of the U.S. national team.

Reyna's father Miguel moved to the United States in 1968 from Argentina, where he had gone through the youth system of Independiente and played professionally with Los Andes. He settled in Springfield Township, New Jersey in the 1970s. Reyna was born in Livingston, New Jersey, where he learned the game from his father.

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 at El Salvador. They had four children: Jack (1999–2012), Giovanni (born 2002), Joah-Mikel (2007), and Carolina (2009). Jack was born in Wolfsburg, Germany; Giovanni was born in Sunderland, England; Joah-Mikel was born in Austin, Texas, U.S.; and Carolina was born in Bedford, New York, U.S.. Jack died of brain cancer in 2012. Giovanni, named after former Rangers teammate Giovanni van Bronckhorst, transferred from the New York City FC development academy to Borussia Dortmund's academy in November 2018. The family resided for a time in Bedford, New York. In February 2012, Reyna and fellow New Jersey native Tony Meola were elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame, with Reyna named on 96% of the ballots. Reyna speaks fluent English and Spanish and is conversational in German. During and after the 2022 World Cup, Claudio and Danielle Reyna were reported to have intervened with the United States Soccer Federation, making "veiled threats" in an attempt to get Giovanni additional playing time and better treatment with the United States national team, and even attempting to blackmail then-coach Gregg Berhalter. One US Soccer staffer characterized Reyna's interactions as "inappropriate," "bullying" and "mean-spirited." A report by the USSF found that facts…