Bundesliga
Sebastian Kehl on Gio Reyna: "He can be very important"
Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl believes Giovanni Reyna can play a big role for Borussia Dortmund this season after returning from a loan spell with Nottingham Forest.
Reyna, 21, has made 122 appearances for BVB since his debut in January 2020 but spent the second half of the 2023/24 season with English Premier League outfit Forest after featuring in just one Bundesliga game before the winter break.
The USA international struggled to make an impact in England, failing to score in 10 matches across all competitions, but has been given another opportunity to impress since his return to Dortmund and was even introduced as a substitute in the 2-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on the opening day of the 2024/25 Bundesliga campaign.
Speaking in the aftermath of that win, Kehl said, “He has to accept his role, free himself from it. It was clear when we had the talks in the summer that Gio wanted to take on this role, that there will be enough games in which we need him. We know that he has incredible abilities.”
Watch: The best of Gio Reyna at Borussia Dortmund
Over the Summer, Kehl said, Reyna “worked on himself, worked on his stability, worked on his charisma. This clever turning between the lines and his goal threat - he has developed that further. Gio can still be very important for us this season."
Reyna currently has two years left on his deal at Signal Iduna Park, but Kehl was non-committal in regards to what the future holds beyond that. He explained, “There are no other thoughts. There is nothing on the table and I don't hear that the player wants to leave.”
England-born Reyna had just turned 17 when he made his Dortmund bow against Augsburg, a game that was also Erling Haaland's first for the club. That made him the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga, while he later became the youngest player of any nationality to make 50 German top-flight appearances – a record Florian Wirtz has since broken. He has also scored 17 goals and helped Dortmund win the DFB Cup in 2020/21.
Dortmund are next in action away at Werder Bremen on Saturday 31 August. It remains to be seen what part Reyna will play in that encounter.