Gio Reyna’s ill-fated loan to Nottingham Forest came about at least partially due to the encouragement of his father Claudio Reyna, according to a report from ESPN.
Reyna left Borussia Dortmund at midseason in search of more playing time, but the U.S. men’s national team midfielder has not succeeded on that front.
Reyna has appeared in 10 games for Forest, starting just twice, and has played only 230 total minutes for the club.
The 21-year-old will return to Dortmund after this weekend’s final round of Premier League matches, having played the same limited role in England that he did in Germany prior to the loan.
That was not the plan back in the winter, as Reyna looked for a temporary switch to boost his minutes and confidence.
According to ESPN, Reyna’s former agency Wasserman was not initially in favor of sending the midfielder to England, but his father pushed for the move to Forest.
Around the time of his loan move, Reyna switched agents from Wasserman to Jorge Mendes, who has a lengthy history of ties with Nottingham Forest.
The report is confirmation that ex-USMNT star Claudio Reyna is still actively involved his son’s career, even after a major scandal that broke last year — though advocating for a loan move is certainly a more conventional method of involvement than what was revealed in an investigation last year.
U.S. Soccer’s independent investigation concluded that Reyna had a “pattern of periodic outreach” to U.S. Soccer officials from 2016 through the end of 2022, which included attempts to influence federation decisions.
Most notably, Claudio Reyna and his wife Danielle leaked information to U.S. Soccer about a domestic violence incident involving USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter in retaliation for Berhalter’s treatment of Gio Reyna during the 2022 World Cup.
[lawrence-related id=70223,68944,30875]