Claudio Reyna is an American retired soccer player who played as a midfielder for clubs in Germany, Scotland, England and the USA, as well as the United States national side. He first showed his potential while playing for the University of Virginia and was selected for the US national side despite never having played professionally. He was in the US squad for the 1994 World Cup but did not play a match.
He signed for German club Bayer Leverkusen in 1994 and was then loaned to Wolfsburg in 1997 before ending his time in the Bundesliga in 1999. A move to Rangers followed but, less than two years later, he was signed by Premier League club Sunderland. He only made 28 appearances for the Black Cats as injury kept him out of the side but Manchester City opted to sign him in August 2003.
Sunderland paid Rangers £2.85million ($3.9million) to sign Reyna and he made his debut against Southampton on December 15. He scored his first goal for the Black Cats on December 22 in a 1-0 victory over Everton. Reyna was a regular for the Wearsiders during the second half of the 2001/02 season, enjoying 17 Premier League outings and scoring three goals. He scored twice as Sunderland beat Leicester City 2-1 on April 1 but was sent off for two yellow cards in a 1-0 home loss to Liverpool on April 13.
Despite his injury woes, Manchester City paid Sunderland £2.85m to sign him in the summer of 2003. Fulham had also agreed that price but that move failed to materialise and he ended up at the Etihad Stadium. He remained with City from the summer of 2003 until January 2007 and his time in Manchester was blighted by injury.
Injury ruled him out of several qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup but, when fit, he played his part. He was again absent for the USA's group opener in South Korea and watched his team-mates secure a valuable 3-2 victory over Portugal. He then returned to the starting line-up and played every minute of the remaining four games. Their tournament ended with defeat to Germany at the quarter-final stage. He was named in the team of the tournament.
Reyna married Danielle Egan in July 1997. She was a member of the United States women's national soccer team at the time and the couple had four children - Jack, Giovanni, Joah-Mikel and Carolina. Tragically, Reyna's eldest child Jack died of brain cancer in 2012.
They have big boots to fill but the signs are that these young offspring could go on to be even better than their famous fathers.
Landon Donovan, Claudio Reyna and Michael Bradley all feature as we select the cream of the crop from the USMNT.
