U.S. Soccer launched an investigation into menās national team head coach Gregg Berhalter in December, and it was reportedly prompted by messages from one of Berhalterās teammates.
Claudio Reyna, a former USMNT captain and the father of USMNT forward Gio Reyna, sent messages to U.S. Soccer executives during the World Cup threatening to divulge sensitive information from Berhalterās past, ESPNās Jeff Carlisle and Kyle Bonagura reported, citing sources. Claudio and his wife, Danielle, informed U.S. soccer of a past domestic incident involving Berhalter in a call on Dec. 11, after Gio was informed of his limited World Cup role, Carlisle and Bonagura reported.
Gio Reyna appeared in just two of the USMNTās four matches in Qatar. Berhalter revealed that a player āwas clearly not meeting expectations on and off the fieldā and that he and his staff considered sending the player home. He did not name Gio Reyna individually, but the player confirmed it in an Instagram post after Berhalterās comments went public.Ā
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Berhalter released a statement on Tuesday claiming that an individual reached out to U.S. Soccer with āinformation about me that would ātake me down.āā He then admitted to kicking his future wife, Rosalind, in an incident over 30 years ago and said the authorities were never involved. The two have been married for 25 years and have four children together.
Shortly after Berhalter released his statement, U.S. Soccer posted a statement of its own saying it had launched an investigation into Berhalter and a technical review of the menās national team program.
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Berhalterās contract with the USMNT expired on Dec. 31. Anthony Hudson will coach the United States menās soccer team rather than Berhalter ahead of the first two matches of the cycle leading to the 2026 World Cup.
Claudio Reyna and Berhalter were both members of the USMNT from 1994 to 2006 and played high school soccer together. Danielle Reyna and Rosalind Berhalter played four seasons of soccer together at the University of North Carolina.
Claudio Reyna is currently the sporting director for Austin FC.