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COVER STORY - HISPANIC Magazine - March 2006 The heart of the U.S. men’s soccer team pulses Argentinian blood. American midfielder Claudio Reyna was born and raised in New Jersey, but his father, Miguel, instilled in his son a passion for his native country’s national team. The captain of the American squad for seven years now, Reyna recalls watching Argentina win the World Cup at home in 1978 as a 5-year-old. Even more clearly, he remembers being just fine with Maradona’s “hand of God” goal against England on the way to another World Cup win in 1986. “I was too young to spot it,” Reyna says. “I thought he was just quicker than the goalie and that he headed it in. My family went extra bonkers that day.” A two-time Olympian, Reyna will take part in his fourth World Cup this summer in Germany. Last time around, his first since national team coach Bruce Arena chose him to be the team’s captain following the 1998 World Cup in France, Reyna helped lead the U.S. to a remarkable quarterfinal appearance. Despite being eliminated in 2002 by Germany, which went on to the final before losing to champions Brazil, theAmericans’ performance was an unqualified success. “It was nice, but it really is now in the history books,” Reyna says. “It’s something that we can look back on and count it as a great achievement … but I think we’ve got to put that behind us. That’s done and now we have to go into this World Cup with the same attitude as last time and really play as a team.” A key player with Manchester City in the English Premiership, Reyna—whose mother is Portuguese—was sidelined by an ankle injury in December that ultimately required surgery. The 32-year-old surpassed 100 appearances with the American squad in 2004, one of the rare players to compile so much experience in international competition. He is unquestionably the elder statesman of the U.S. national team and proud of that role. “It’s an incredible honor to lead your team out and represent your nation in such a big tournament,” Reyna says. “You just kind of have to lead by example. You don’t have to be loud. You don’t necessarily have to scream at players, you just have to be yourself, and I think that’s what made Bruce choose me. And to be perfectly honest, the players that play for the U.S. team are a great group of guys and every time we get together they work really hard. We have a good work ethic. Everyone plays for the team, so it makes my job really easy.”
With three World Cups under his belt already, Reyna expects the upcoming tournament in Germany to be the best one staged yet as a result of the host country’s organization and the keen level of interest there. As far as the U.S. team’s prospects, he acknowledges that the December tourna-ment draw that saw them grouped with the Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana will make for a challenging first round, to say the least. “We clearly would have loved an easier group, but I think we kind of like the underdog role at the World Cup and we can thrive on it,” Reyna says. “You want to test yourself against the best, and we’re going to see what we’re made of as a team. More than anything it’s a really big challenge to go up against great players. You’ve got to prove yourself time and time again at the highest level and earn the respect again of the world in soccer, and everyone has to do that.” Reyna considers the Premiership to be the best club league in the world, along with the top Spanish league. He notes that the U.S. has made great strides in producing strong international players, but cautions that sticking with club teams in Europe is much more difficult than catching their attention and interest. “There are a lot of us over here, but it’s definitely easier to make it here than it is to stay here, and that’s the big challenge,” he says. “Day in, day out, game in, game out putting performances in and being a good professional, that’s the hard part. We need to start developing players in America that can make the jump to great leagues and good clubs and really have long careers here, and I think that’s what we’re starting to do.” Reyna has been a trailblazer in that regard. Now in his 13th season in a European career that began in Germany’s Bundesliga, he played for Bayer Leverkusen, Vfl Wolfsburg and the Glasgow Rangers of the Scottish Premier League before moving to England with Sunderland in 2001. He spent two seasons there before joining the Blues, who recently signed him to a one-year contract extension. “I didn’t want to leave the club and it’s a fantastic situation for me,” Reyna says. “It’s a big club and we have an amazing, brand-new stadium and the support we get is incredible. Living in Manchester is great. For me really the last 12 years as a professional in Europe have been a dream. Going into it you never know what kind of journey you’re going to have. I wanted to play as long as I could at the highest level and I’ve been able to do that.” His heritage makes him a sought-after interview in the soccer-mad Hispanic media. Reyna appreciates the influence Latinos have on soccer interest in the U.S. and has no problem with the fact that many of them still have their hearts with their homeland teams’ fortunes while cheering on the American team, too. “Whether I’m in New York, L.A. or down in Miami, the Latin people will recognize me and they’re just huge fans of the game,” Reyna says. “Whether they’re from Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico or Colombia, they all just love the sport, so playing on the national team and being Latin is nice because in many ways I’m representing them. Especially because they do like siding with the Latin players and we probably play a way that they like to watch the game as well.” And American soccer fans should be aware that Argentina played a role in offering the U.S. a player that has led the country to its current standing among the elite international teams in the most popular team sport in the world. “Obviously I’m American and I’ll always root for the U.S. first when I’m done playing, but the next team that I root for is always Argentina. They were the inspiration for me, and that’s all I really had growing up. Being that it was connected to my family, it was easy to get attached to them and to follow them and to support them. As long as we’re not in their group, I cheer for them every World Cup and want them to go as far as possible. It won’t be any different this time. Every time they play, I look for their results and that just comes from what I was brought up watching.” H |
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Captain America
“I played four games with it broken, so it was obviously painful,” Reyna says. “I didn’t really know what it was exactly, but I knew it was sore. I tried to play on it and then I went to see a specialist in Amsterdam and he did a CT scan that showed that there was a fracture, and I’d been playing with it the whole time. It was disappointing, but on some level I was glad because I knew something wasn’t right. The way I felt, the pain I had when I was training. It was nice to be able to find it so it was cured up with plenty of time before the World Cup.”
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