It appears we have a major U.S. soccer scandal on our hands.
Danielle Reyna, the wife of former American and international club soccer star Claudio Reyna and father of current USMNT player Gio Reyna, was the one who revealed a troubling incident involving current head coach Gregg Berhalter from when he was 18 years old in a call with U.S. soccer executives, she told Fox Sports.
The call took place on Dec. 11 after comments made by Berhalter at a summit in which he criticized an anonymous player, widely believed to be Gio Reyna, became public.
Claudio Reyna also threatened to share allegations about Berhalter’s past, according to ESPN, though he denied that claim.
Danielle, a former USWNT player who was roommates with Berhalter’s wife Rosalind at North Carolina, confirmed in a statement to Fox Sports that she reported the incident to USSF sporting director Earnie Stewart.
“To set the record straight, I did call Earnie Stewart on December 11, just after the news broke that Gregg had made negative statements about my son Gio,” Danielle Reyna wrote Wednesday to Fox Sports. “I have known Earnie for years and consider him to be a close friend. I wanted to let him know that I was absolutely outraged and devasted [sic] that Gio had been put in such a terrible position, and that I felt very personally betrayed by the actions of someone my family had considered a friend for decades.
“As part of that conversation, I told Earnie that I thought it was especially unfair that Gio, who had apologized for acting immaturely about his playing time, was still being dragged through the mud when Gregg had asked for and received forgiveness for doing something so much worse at the same age.
“Without going into detail, the statements from (Tuesday) significantly minimize the abuse on the night in question. Rosalind Berhalter was my roommate, teammate and best friend, and I supported her through the trauma that followed. It took a long time for me to forgive and accept Gregg afterward, but I worked hard to give him grace, and ultimately made both of them and their kids a huge part of my family’s life. I would have wanted and expected him to give the same grace to Gio. This is why the current situation is so very hurtful and hard.”
The incident in question was a decades-old act of domestic violence in which Berhalter kicked his now-wife, Rosalind. Berhalter shared his accounting of the story in a lengthy statement released Tuesday, in which he admitted to wrongdoing in 1991 when he was 18. Berhalter identified an “individual” who contacted U.S. Soccer in “an apparent effort to leverage something very personal from long ago” in an attempt to get him fired.
Now, we apparently know who that individual was. And it came after Claudio and Danielle’s son, Gio, appeared to get on the wrong side of Berhalter during the Americans’ run at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Berhalter reportedly told Gio that he would have a limited role before the tournament started and followed through on his promise. Reyna only logged 53 minutes total in the World Cup across two games, with zero starts.
After the U.S. was eliminated from the World Cup, Berhalter spoke at the HOW Institute for Society’s Summit on Moral Leadership and mentioned that he “had a player that was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field.” He did not mention Reyna by name, but it was widely assumed that the 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund star was the culprit. The next day, Gio Reyna confirmed it.
It was around the same time that Danielle Reyna called U.S. Soccer – with, Berhalter claims, the intent of getting him fired.
Berhalter and Claudio Reyna – a decorated player in U.S. soccer, having been a part of the 1998, 2002 and 2008 American World Cup teams – have a relationship that spans decades. The two played soccer together as far back as their youth and high school leagues and overlapped on the national team for over a decade. The two wives, Danielle and Rosalind, were also soccer teammates at the University of North Carolina.
The conflict is clearly personal – and the Reynas appear to have succeeded in damaging Berhalter’s reputation. On Wednesday, U.S. Soccer announced that it would be assistant coach Anthony Hudson, not Berhalter, that would lead a January camp in California as the investigation continues.
