LOS ANGELES — The parents of national team forward Gio Reyna admitted Wednesday they reported a 31-year-old domestic violence incident involving U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter last month following the team’s exit for the World Cup in Qatar.
In a statement sent to Fox Sports, The Athletic and ESPN, Reyna’s mother Danielle said she reported a physical altercation between Berhalter and his now-wife Rosalind to Earnie Stewart, U.S. Soccer’s sporting director, after Berhalter, speaking at a summit on moral leadership, referenced some internal issues in Qatar involving a player he did not name.
The player did not display sufficient intensity in training, the coach said, and was nearly sent home. It was later revealed that player was Gio Reyna, who was little used in the World Cup.
“I did call Earnie Stewart just after the news broke that Gregg had made negative statements about my son Gio at a leadership conference,” Danielle Reyna said. “I have known Earnie for years and consider him to be a close friend. I wanted to let him know that I was absolutely outraged and devastated that Gio had been put in such a terrible position, and that I felt very personally betrayed by the actions of someone my family had considered a friend for decades.”
“I want to be very clear that I did not ask for Gregg to be fired, I did not make any threats, and I don’t know anything about any blackmail attempts,” continued Danielle Reyna, a roommate of Rosalind Berhalter at the University of North Carolina in 1991, when the confrontation with Gregg Berhalter, who played for the school’s soccer team, took place.
Gio’s father Claudio, who played in high school and on the national team alongside Berhalter and served as the best man during Berhalter’s wedding ceremony with Rosalind, issued a statement of his own to The Athletic saying: “I, too, was upset by Gregg’s comments about Gio after the U.S. was out of the World Cup and I also appealed to Earnie Stewart … asking him to prevent any additional comments. While in Qatar, I shared my frustrations about my son’s World Cup experience with a number of close friends. ... However at no time did I ever threaten anyone, nor would I ever do so.”
In a social media post Tuesday, Berhalter said the federation was contacted last month by an unnamed individual who said “they had information about me that would ‘take me down’ — an apparent effort to leverage something very personal from long ago to bring about the end of my relationship with U.S. Soccer.”
In the post, Berhalter, whose contract with U.S. Soccer ended Saturday, admitted to a physical altercation with his Rosalind, outside a bar when both were 18. During the altercation Berhalter kicked Rosalind in the legs. The incident was never reported to the authorities and Berhalter said he sought counseling on his own.
The couple began dating more than a year later and were married in 1999.
“There are zero excuses for my actions that night; it was a shameful moment and one that I regret to this day,” Berhalter wrote.
In a separate statement, U.S. Soccer said it learned of the allegation against Berhalter on Dec. 11 and hired the Atlanta-based law firm of Alston & Bird LLP to conduct an independent investigation in that matter as well as “potential inappropriate behavior towards multiple members of our staff by individuals outside of our organization.”
As the investigation continues, Anthony Hudson, an assistant coach with the U.S. during last year’s World Cup in Qatar, will direct the men’s national team during this month’s training camp in Southern California. Hudson will be joined in by fellow World Cup assistant coach B.J. Callaghan and Mikey Vargas, the coach of the U.S. U-20 national team. Those men will choose the roster for the training camp, which will likely be announced next week.
Hudson, 41, previously coached the national teams of Bahrain and New Zealand and in MLS with the Colorado Rapids. He joined the U.S. national team staff in 2021. His appointment is considered interim.
Berhalter, 49, a two-time World Cup selection as a player, took over the national team in December 2018. In his four years in charge, he overhauled the team, auditioning 88 players and leading the U.S. back to the World Cup after an eight-year absence. He also won the Gold Cup and Nations League tournaments, going 37-11-12.
The January camp, the first of that new cycle, will conclude with friendlies against Serbia on Jan. 25 at Banc of California Stadium and Colombia on Jan. 28 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
