DOHA, Qatar — U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter reportedly said at a leadership summit on Tuesday that he considered sending a player home from the 2022 World Cup because the player “was clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field.”
According to multiple reports, the first by MLSsoccer.com’s Tom Bogert, the player was Gio Reyna. Reyna, 20, was expected to be at least a key contributor off the bench for the USMNT in Qatar, but only played eight group-stage minutes.
Speaking at the HOW Institute for Society’s Summit on Moral Leadership in New York shortly after returning from Qatar, Berhalter — according to a lightly edited transcript published by the Charter newsletter — said that, “as a staff, we sat together for hours deliberating what we were going to do with this player.