U.S. men's national team star Gio Reyna says he is a 'better' player than his U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame elected father, Claudio!
WHAT HAPPENED? On the latest episode of the Men in Blazers The American Dream podcast, hosted by USMNT defender Tim Ream, Gio Reyna and USMNT teammate Joe Scally joined the veteran to discuss their young careers in the game.
Reyna made an outrageous statement, saying that during his young career, he's believed from the age of five-onward that he's been a better player than his father, U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame inductee, Claudio.
WHAT THEY SAID: «Soccer is in my family's blood, so it was always going to be soccer.
it wasn't forced in any way… to be completely honest, growing up I always thought I was better than him. Like, in a respectful way, and I even used to tell him that when I was like, five or six [years-old]. My grandpa used to tell me the same thing, but I more thought it was cool that he was known and… at the youth development academy tournaments, people would ask for pictures and I took it as a positive — like I have so much to learn from and the guys on my team obviously really respected him, and Joe [Scally] was there also.»
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Gio's father Claudio is still in hot water after accusations last December of attempting to blackmail USMNT boss Gregg Berhalter, who outed his son Gio as someone he 'almost sent home' due to his work rate and effort during the Qatar World Cup.
Claudio released personal information about an altercation between Berhalter and his wife Rosalind in 1991, that saw the USMNT boss put on leave during an internal investigation until being reinstated as the permanent boss mid-summer.
Claudio Reyna's comments saw him removed from his position as technical
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