Why Gio Reyna, Ricardo Pepi, other young U.S. stars flock to Germany

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By Doug McIntyre
FOX Sports activities Soccer Author

Lengthy earlier than a barely 17-year-old Christian Pulisic began scoring objectives for Bundesliga energy Borussia Dortmund in early 2016, Germany’s high league was the popular leaping off level for younger American soccer gamers.

Landon Donovan started his skilled profession there. So did fellow USMNT greats Claudio Reyna, Steve Cherundolo and others.

However Pulisic’s on the spot success as a youngster in one of many world’s high 5 leagues was completely different. The truth is, it was unprecedented. His first strike made him the youngest non-German ever to attain within the Bundesliga. His second made him the youngest of any nationality to notch two objectives. These distinctions raised eyebrows not simply within the U.S. but in addition in England and past.

Jadon Sancho actually took discover. One of many English recreation’s most prized kids, Sancho left Manchester Metropolis and joined Dortmund in 2017, after the Premier League champions couldn’t assure him taking part in time.

He went on to make 104 top-flight appearances for the Black and Yellow earlier than Manchester United introduced him again to the Prem final summer season for nearly $100 million, or about $25 million greater than the switch payment Chelsea paid for Pulisic two years earlier.

“Clearly, Christian Pulisic performed a job,” BVB’s Giovanni Reyna, Claudio’s son, mentioned final week when requested by FOX Sports activities why he selected to signal his first professional contract in Germany. “Everybody noticed what he was doing right here as a younger participant.”

At age 19, Reyna is already in his third season with Dortmund’s senior squad, and he’s teammates with one other English blue-chipper in 18-year-old Jude Bellingham, plus 21-year-old Erling Haaland, who’s universally thought to be one of many brightest skills within the international recreation. In comparison with different rising stars, the three are grizzled vets.

Since Reyna, Bellingham and Haaland made their Bundesliga debuts two seasons in the past, a slew of recent up-and-comers have arrived in Germany. Joe Scally, like Reyna a product of NYCFC’s academy, has been a daily with Borussia Mönchengladbach this season. Simply since Jan. 1, three extra People — George Bello (Arminia Bielefeld), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg) and Ricardo Pepi (Augsburg) — have left MLS groups for Germany.

“In America, each single participant needs to come back play within the Bundesliga,” Pepi, who sought the recommendation of USMNT teammates Pulisic, Reyna and Weston McKennie earlier than making the leap, mentioned final week throughout a Zoom name with worldwide journalists. “I wouldn’t say it’s a steppingstone.”

Nonetheless, there’s no approach Pulisic would’ve cracked Chelsea’s veteran-laden first crew at 17. McKennie, who has emerged as a bona fide star in his second season with Italian titan Juventus, wouldn’t have gone from the FC Dallas academy to Juve’s beginning lineup with out his four-year visit Schalke.

“It’s an important place for youthful gamers to study,” Cherundolo, who spent 16 years as a participant and 5 extra as a coach in Germany, informed FOX Sports activities. “German coaches normally are superb at educating the nuances of the sport, and youthful gamers will thrive in environments like that as a result of there’s a framework for them to maneuver inside. There’s room for creativity, however there’s additionally construction. That’s what youthful gamers want.”

There are different components, too. Immigration legal guidelines are an enormous a part of the rationale Germany has turn into the vacation spot for the game’s most gifted and bold prospects. Not solely is the Premier League at the moment the strongest in Europe, however it’s additionally the toughest to achieve entry to for foreigners, who typically should already be mainstays for his or her nationwide groups to qualify for the U.Ok. work allow required to signal for an English membership.

The highest leagues in France, Italy, Spain and even the Netherlands even have stiffer restrictions on signing gamers from exterior the European Union than Germany does. And regardless of the language barrier, there may be much less tradition shock off the sector for U.S. and British gamers in Germany than in different European nations, the place fewer persons are bilingual.

German golf equipment have additionally proven a singular willingness to present inexperienced gamers worthwhile taking part in time in high-stakes, high-quality video games. That belief, for essentially the most half, has paid off.

“Right here within the Bundesliga, should you make a mistake, it’s not gonna wreck your profession. You’ll get one other likelihood,” mentioned Scally, who added that ‘Gladbach outlined its plan for him intimately early on and that “The whole lot they mentioned mainly got here true.”

No membership has benefited from giving expertise to kids greater than Dortmund, which has in flip supplied the blueprint for a lot of the remainder of the Bundesliga. Whereas Actual Madrid, Chelsea, the 2 Manchester giants and German champ Bayern Munich all have the monetary assets to purchase completed merchandise for huge sums, BVB has earned a fame as maybe the planet’s finest incubator of uncooked potential.

It’s one of many causes Haaland selected Dortmund over a few of these very suitors when he left Austria’s FC Salzburg in early 2020. Since then, he has scored 71 objectives in 70 Bundesliga and Champions League appearances. Dortmund, which paid simply $22 million for the Norwegian striker, is anticipated to promote his contract for as much as eight instances that quantity this summer season.

“Among the younger expertise gained’t make a profession like Christian Pulisic and Gio, however I feel for the gamers and their households, it’s vital to see that this membership is just not solely promising issues, however it’s fulfilling the guarantees,” mentioned Carsten Cramer, Dortmund’s managing director. “It’s a part of our DNA that we positively gained’t be capable to rent the large stars however that we are going to educate the younger stars — that we are going to construct stars.”

Wherever they arrive from.

One of the crucial distinguished soccer journalists in North America, Doug McIntyre has lined United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups in additional than a dozen nations, together with a number of FIFA World Cups. Earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities, the New York Metropolis native was a employees author for Yahoo Sports activities and ESPN. Observe him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.