Derek Rae is uncertain of where Gio Reyna's career goes from here. The 22-year-old U.S. international's time with Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga is all but over, and the next move seems make-or-break for a player who was once considered the next big American soccer superstar.
"With regard to Gio Reyna, I think there's more to come from him, but just how good he is, how good he's going to be? I think nobody really knows," the veteran ESPN broadcaster told GOAL.
Ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Reyna was touted as a game-changing player. Nearly four years on, he's on the outside looking in at a spot on the USMNT for the 2026 World Cup.
"I think you have to look at the injury situation," Rae said. "Injuries have been part of the narrative with Gio Reyna and have held him back. He wouldn't be the first player who has emerged as a teenager and with big potential to then stall a bit. And I think the injuries have had to do with that.
"The weakness is that he's one-dimensional. And you can maybe be one-dimensional if you are right at the top of the tree among creative midfield players in the Bundesliga. But I think with Gio Reyna, we're talking about a player who's still a work in progress, and it's been moving to this point, to this point of departure, I think, for a while."
The Dortmund man isn't the only American in Germany, or even at Dortmund, with emerging storylines. Teenager Cole Campbell broke through with the Black and Yellow last season into the first team, but could join Reyna in departing the club this summer.
Campbell, 19, is "one of the fastest players in the Bundesliga," per Rae, but "only time will tell" just how good he turns out to be. Meanwhile, wingers Kevin Paredes and Paxten Aaronson, both of whom starred for the U23 USMNT at the 2024 Olympics, are back in preseason training with clubs in Germany, searching for spots ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Paredes missed nearly all of last campaign with Wolfsburg due to injury, while Aaronson was loaned out from Eintracht Frankfurt to FC Utrecht in the Netherlands. Rae remains bullish on Aaronson's odds of breaking into this Frankfurt squad. And he calls this the biggest year of Paredes' professional career.
Rae, ESPN's lead Bundesliga commentator, also covers La Liga and is most prominently known by fans around the world as the voice of the EAFC video game. He discussed Reyna and other Americans in Germany in the latest edition of Mic'd Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL US taps into the perspective of broadcasters, analysts, and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.
NOTE: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.