Despite turmoil surrounding the United States men’s national soccer team, nothing has changed for head coach Gregg Berhalter.
He wants to remain manager and lead the team through the 2026 World Cup, which will partially be played on home soil in America.
“When we started in 2018, we wanted to change the way the world views American soccer, and I think when you ask around the world now about our team, the world sees us in a completely different light,” Berhalter said during an appearance Thursday on a Harvard Business Review video series, his first on-the-record comments since the USMNT was eliminated from the 2022 World Cup. “But now it’s about how you take that next step, and that next step is doing something that no U.S. team [since 1930] has ever done and that’s get to the semifinals and see what happens from there. So there’s a lot of great challenges involved, and of course I’d like to continue in my role.”
That decision, however, is now out of Berhalter’s hands. After the 49-year-old’s contract expired on Dec. 31, the USMNT already faced a looming decision on whether or not to bring him back. The decision grew much more complex on Tuesday, when Berhalter released a statement revealing that he had kicked his now-wife, Rosalind, during an argument when they were dating in 1991, when he was 18 years old. Berhalter claimed he was blackmailed over the incident during the World Cup, stating that an individual had contacted U.S. Soccer representatives with the information in order to get him fired.
One day later, Danielle Reyna, the mother of Gio Reyna, one of the team’s most promising young prospects, and wife of former U.S. player Claudio Reyna, revealed she was the one who had approached U.S. soccer with the accusations. Gio Reyna, 20, made just two brief substitute appearances in a surprisingly small role at the 2022 World Cup. Following the tournament, Berhalter, without naming Reyna, referenced him and his situation at a different leadership seminar in comments the coach said he was told would be off the record. In his speech, Berhalter spoke about a player who “did not meet expectations” in how he behaved.
Reyna quickly responded to the comments, claiming Berhalter betrayed him by making the incident public. Reyna acknowledged he had acted out in practice after learning before the tournament he wouldn’t have a big role, but that after apologizing he was told he was forgiven and that it would stay private.
Gio’s father, Claudio, played with Berhalter on the USMNT from 1994-2006, and his mother was a college teammate of Berhalter’s wife on the North Carolina soccer team. What started as a disagreement about playing time has grown into a personal vendetta, now taken public.
In a statement, Danielle Reyna said she approached U.S. soccer with the decades-old information after becoming upset upon hearing Berhalter’s comments about her son.
Berhalter, who has continued to say he was told the comments were supposed to be off the record, nevertheless said he regrets making private information public.
“When you reference that talk, and although you said it wasn’t about a player — it was more about the team and their response — if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have told that story,” Berhalter said. “It just brought too much unwarranted attention to an overall shining example of team culture and teamwork. And so, that would be something that I would go back and change for sure.”
The U.S. Soccer Federation is currently investigating the 1991 incident, and assistant Anthony Hudson will coach the team for its January training camp and friendly matches while Berhalter’s fate hangs in the balance.