Former BVB star Giovanni Reyna faces an uncertain future | OneFootball

A rare moment of happiness for Giovanni Reyna: In the World Cup opener against Paraguay, the 23-year-old American curled the ball elegantly into the net to make it 4-1. Such moments of success have become rare for Borussia Dortmund’s former great hope.

“He is a huge talent,” Lars Ricken (49), then still youth coordinator, enthused in the summer of 2019. The man who is now BVB’s sporting managing director said the new signing had “great potential.”

Despite making 147 appearances for the Black and Yellows, scoring 19 goals and providing 18 assists, Reyna never managed to make the final breakthrough. Even a six-month loan spell at Nottingham Forest did nothing to change his status. The “huge talent” became an “eternal talent,” as BILD diagnosed in June 2024. According to transfermarkt.de, Reyna’s market value dropped from 42 million euros in 2021 to just four million euros today.

In August 2025, Reyna opted for a fresh sporting start and moved for four million euros from one Borussia to another, from Dortmund to Mönchengladbach. “Gio is an experienced yet still young player with enormous potential,” praised Roland Virkus (59), formerly Gladbach’s sporting managing director, in reference to the versatile attacking player.

Starting XI or exit?

But Reyna did not find footballing happiness on the Lower Rhine either. In the season just ended, he played 20 matches for the Foals, but only five of them as a starter. His return was extremely meager, with one goal and one assist.

Photo: IMAGO

Now, despite a contract running until 2028, the signs are once again pointing toward a departure, SPORT BILD reports. The stage of the World Cup gives Reyna the chance to draw lasting attention to himself. With “top performances,” “he could play his way back into the starting XI,” the report says. However, if he remains only a backup player, Gladbach would likely be willing to let him go even below market value. By the end of the contract, the club could save more than four million euros in salary costs overall.

Reyna, whose inclusion in the USA’s World Cup squad was quite controversial due to his lack of playing time, is therefore playing in this tournament not only for victory or defeat, but also for his future.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.