Reyna Finds New Home in France

United States midfielder Giovanni Reyna has completed a permanent move to French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg from Borussia Mönchengladbach, in a deal reportedly worth up to €4million ($4.6m). The 23-year-old has signed a five-year contract that runs through to 2031.

The move marks the fourth different club Reyna has represented in as many seasons, continuing a journeyman trajectory for a player once considered one of the brightest young talents in American soccer. Strasbourg confirmed the signing on Tuesday, with The Athletic having previously reported that talks were underway last Thursday.

A Season to Forget in Gladbach

Reyna only joined Gladbach last summer following six years at Borussia Dortmund, but a series of muscle injuries severely limited his impact. He was restricted to just 19 Bundesliga appearances — only four of which were starts — as Gladbach finished a disappointing 12th in the German top flight.

His solitary goal came against Augsburg in May, and he failed to register a single assist across the campaign. The midfielder has not played more than 625 minutes in the league since the 2020-21 season, when he was still a teenager breaking through at Dortmund.

A Stop-Start Career Path

Reyna's recent career has been defined by a quest for regular minutes that has repeatedly been derailed by injuries and circumstance. After emerging from the New York City FC academy and establishing himself at Dortmund, he spent the second half of the 2023-24 season on loan at Nottingham Forest before making a permanent move to Gladbach in the summer of 2025.

That Gladbach transfer was specifically intended to secure consistent playing time ahead of the 2026 World Cup, but the injury issues that have plagued him throughout his career resurfaced once again.

World Cup in the Shadow of Club Struggles

Despite his lack of club minutes, Reyna was named in the USMNT's World Cup squad and featured in all five of the USA's games at the tournament. Four of those appearances came from the bench as the Americans exited at the last-16 stage against Belgium.

He scored once at the tournament — a memorable trivela goal in a 4-1 win over Paraguay — and has now been capped 43 times at international level, scoring 10 goals. The World Cup appearance came four years after the 2022 tournament in Qatar, where he was nearly sent home for disciplinary issues after learning he would not start the opener against Wales.

A Fresh Start Under BlueCo

Reyna will hope for better fortune at Strasbourg, a club that narrowly missed out on European football last season after finishing eighth in Ligue 1. The French side is owned by BlueCo, the consortium led by U.S. businessman Todd Boehly — who holds minority stakes in the L.A. Dodgers, L.A. Lakers, and L.A. Sparks — and Clearlake Capital, which purchased Chelsea in 2022 and made Strasbourg part of its multi-club model a year later.

Strasbourg open their 2026-27 Ligue 1 campaign away to Marseille on August 21, with Reyna expected to be available for his new side as he seeks to reignite a career that has promised much but delivered too little in recent years.