FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — Gio Reyna didn’t want to be at home last Friday, knowing that US Soccer would notify players around 1 p.m. whether they made the World Cup 2026 roster. He and his wife, Chloe, had gone out for a smoothie and sat in the car waiting nervously.

The news was good, which means two things. First, the public fallout of Reyna’s 2022 World Cup did not, in the end, prevent him from earning a place in the squad.

And second, everything Reyna does at this World Cup will, inevitably, be pulled through the keyhole of that messy, ugly saga, in which he was nearly sent home from the World Cup over a lack of effort, and his parents called US Soccer to report a 1991 incident in which Gregg Berhalter, their longtime friend and then-USMNT coach, kicked his future wife, Rosalind.

Reyna himself says that behind closed doors, it is long in the past, and his inclusion in this team suggests he is telling the truth. To the outside world, though, it’s a shadow hanging over him.

He was asked Friday whether it’s gotten tiring to answer questions about it, and confirmed that, yes, of course it has.

“In the end, it doesn’t really affect me anymore,” Reyna said. “To me, it more confuses me when I get the question still. It’s obviously four years removed. I think everyone is so far removed from that. It’s hard for me to even think about that, cause I never really do. I’m just, at the moment, thinking about this World Cup and what I can do to help the team. It’s literally tiring. But in the end, I understand the business and that these questions pop up.”

The way to relegate it to a footnote is to contribute to a successful World Cup. 

Unlike four years ago, Reyna is not viewed as a starter in this USMNT squad — having not started a game for Borussia Monchengladbach since December, it’s not even clear that he’s fit to play a full 90 minutes — but, at every time of asking, coach Mauricio Pochettino has noted that Reyna’s talent is on such a level that he can bring something to this team that others can’t.

“Some players, they’re not ever gonna lose the quality they have,” striker Folarin Balogun said. “Gio’s a player, I think he can see things that a lot of players can’t see.”

Though Reyna usually plays either attacking midfield or right wing, clues are starting to build up that the national team may try to deploy him in a deeper position at some point during this World Cup. 

“Of course I would say a No. 8 [central midfield] or No. 10 [attacking midfield] is probably my best and favorite position since I’ve played [there] since I was young,” Reyna said. “I feel like I can help the team in wider areas and also if I need to play a bit deeper, too.”