Claudio Reyna

Claudio Reyna ( born July 20, 1973 in Livingston, New Jersey ) is a former American football player.

Since May 22, 2013 he is Director of Sport ( director of football operations) of MLS franchises New York City FC, which will go into play mode from the 2015 season.

Career

In the club

Reyna played college football at the University of Virginia, where he was trained by the former U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena. Reyna was honored in 1992 with the Hermann Trophy and in the years 1992 and 1993 with the MAC Award. He moved to Germany in 1995 to Bundesliga Bayer 04 Leverkusen, however, there came in his second season only to very few missions and it was passed in 1997 to VfL Wolfsburg, where he had much more success. In Wolfsburg, he became the first American team captain in a major European football club. On 1 April 1999, he joined the Glasgow Rangers, for whom he played for almost three years. In December 2001, he spent 6.7 million euros in the English Premier League for Sunderland AFC.

In October 2002, Reyna suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his knee, which made ​​him for the remainder of the 2002/03 season out of action. After Sunderland's relegation to the First Division, the club Reyna could not continue to pay high salary, so that the "Black Cats" decided in August 2003 for an early sale to Manchester City for only 3.75 million euros. Reyna also had in his first season for Manchester further injury problems, but he could play at the end of the 2003/04 season in the starting eleven. End of January 2007 he dissolved his contract and moved to the United States on the New York Red Bulls. In July 2008, he announced his retirement from football.

In the National Team

Reyna graduated on January 15, 1994 his first international match in the U.S. national team against Norway. He belonged to the squad of the national team for the 1994 World Cup, but could not be used because of an injury. Reyna then took part in the World Cup in 1998 and especially in the 2002 World Cup. There he led in 2002, the U.S. national team to the quarter-finals where the eventual finalists Germany you had to admit defeat. He was the first U.S. American to be elected to the all-star team of a football World Cup. In the 2006 World Cup in Germany captain Reyna resigned his U.S. team in the preliminary round.

Achievements

  • Scottish champion: 1999, 2000
  • Scottish Cup winner: 2000
  • Gold Cup winner: 2002
  • American Footballer of the Year: 2000 ( Journalist selection)

Private

In July 1997, Reyna married the former U.S. national team player Danielle Egan. Together the two have four children. July 19, 2012 Reyna died 13 - year-old son to the effects of cancer.

He is the son of an Argentine father and a Portuguese mother and has, in addition to the U.S., the Portuguese citizenship.

Trivia

  • In the UK, he got the nickname Captain America due to its captain task in the American national team.
Livingston (New Jersey) Sunderland A.F.C. Football League First Division 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup Kasey Keller Landon Donovan Integrated Authority File
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