Sport: Soccer
Born: July 20, 1973
Town: Livingston, New Jersey
Claudio Reyna was born July 20, 1973 in Livingston, NJ, to Maria and Miguel. His father, a first-division soccer player with the Independente club in Argentina, moved to the US in 1957 to work construction. He returned to Argentina in the late-1960s to marry Maria, and they moved to the US shortly thereafter. Claudio was the first of two sons; his brother’s name is Marcelo.
Claudio was already playing and practicing the game at a fairly high level in his back yard at the age of 5. He was particularly adept at passing. His father—who continued to play semipro soccer in New Jersey—coached Claudio’s club teams well into his teen years. Claudio played high-school soccer for St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark. Tab Ramos had gone to the school and Gregg Berhalter was a teammate of Claudio’s on the Gray Bees. St. Benedict’s did not lose a game during the three years Claudio served as the starting midfielder for the varsity, and he was named prep Player of the Year as a junior and senior.
In 1991, Claudio accepted a scholarship to the University of Virginia. There he played for Bruce Arena, who would become the coach of the national team. The Cavaliers won three straight NCAA championships. Claudio was named Soccer America Player of the Year in 1992 and 1993, and won the Hermann Trophy in 1993 as the country’s top soccer player. Several years later, Soccer America named Claudio Male Player of the Century. Among his UVA teammates were fellow New Jerseyand Richie Williams and Tony Meola.
Claudio was a key part of Team USA for the World Cup in 1994, but injured his hamstring prior to the tournament and did not play. That fall he joined Bayer Leverkusen, a team in the German Bundesliga. In 1997, Claudio was loaned to VFL Wolfsburg, where he became the first American to captain a European club. He also competed in World Cup ’98, ’02 and ’06, serving as captain. His nickname in Europe was “Captain America.”
Claudio was named to the 2002 All-Tournament team; only two other Americans had earned that honors before him. In all, Claudio would participate in 111 international matches as a member of Team USA—including the 1992 and 1996 Olympics—scoring a total of eight goals, including two in World Cup competition.
After a stop with Rangers FC of the Scottish League, Claudio played for the English Premier League teams in Sunderland and Manchester City from 2002 to 2007. Unfortunately, he suffered through a series of leg injuries during this time. Claudio returned to the USA to play for the New York Red Bulls during the 2007 season. He retired early in the 2008 campaign after injuring his back.
Claudio is married to Danielle Egan, who was a member of the women’s national team in the 1990s. Claudio was enshrined in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2013, he was appointed Director of Football for the NYC FC franchise in Major League Soccer. The team was associated with his old club, Manchester City, where he had been a fan favorite. After the 2019 season he took a similar job with Austin FC.
Claudio and Danielle’s son, Giovanni, was named after Giovanni van Bronckhorst, an admired teammate on Rangers FC. In 2020, Gio was named US Soccer’s Young Male Player of the Year. In 2022, Claudio and Danielle traveled to Qatar to watch him play for Team USA in the World Cup. Following the tournament, the Reyna’s_apparently unhappy with Gio’s playing time—reported an incident between Berhalter and his wife when they were all students at UNC. It led to a USA Soccer investigation that ultimately found no wrongdoing.