You're new here, apparently, so welcome. Over time you'll come to recognize our evident preference for misleading and out-of-context, especially alarmist quotes.
To be fair this is just a weekly rumor mill column, and the facts cited (namely that the English FA is looking into Reyna) sound plausible. But this does remind me of the speculation around Januzaj back around 2013.
For the FA's sake, at least Gio actually meets one of the requirements by actually being born in England.
The high comedy aspect is Ornstein's awed description of England's having A Database To Track Promising Players. As if you need sophisticated technology to know a 17-year-old making an impact in the knockout rounds of the champions league is worth keeping an eye on.
Great! It's abbreviation has multiple uses, e.g., DNP = Did Not Play, the official performance designation for all, most, many, some of Yanks Abroad in any given week. I internally cheer when the first tier YA who do play sum to a number larger than for those who DNP. When the DNP number is higher, the DNP band hits a crescendo.
I highly doubt a guy that was raised in the US is going to want to play for Argentina. Especially given that his dad is a USMNT legend. Like how does that even work? Has he even ever stepped foot in Argentina? Does he feel in his bones he's an Argentinean when he puts on his nikes and Supreme hoodie on his off days and he's got Vince Staples playing through his headphones? I dunno man. Dude is an American and like most Americans he thinks he's a difference maker for America, most likely.
“Off the field, I have always felt American. On the field I’ve always felt Italian.” — Giuseppe Rossi EDIT: I see no chance he suits up for Argentina.
With Rossi his dad was a FOBer and he grew up basically in the Italian soccer ecosystem. So that might be the exception that proves the rule. When guys feel American they will choose the USMNT 95% of the time.
It's called Football Manager and you can download their entire, fairly accurate database in CSV format 'for free' from any pirate site.
I saw a Spanish interview with Danny Leyva after a dortmund preseason game against Seattle. At one point Gio walks up to say hi, and the interviewer asks him a question and Leyva had to translate the question and subsequent answer..... So Gio most likely doesn't even speak spanish, which tells me that Argentinas chances are even slimmer than I thought beforehand.
On a related note, I read a few world cups ago that the English FA prided itself in having a very good and comprehensive archive of players in action around the world. No idea whether that was true or not.
Based on past history of the English FA, that means they have spanned the globe from Northern Ireland to Scotland to Bournemouth.
So he's going to drop out of BVB's setup and go play soccer for UNC? Wouldn't that be something. Talk about a ringer.
Yeah, since the Athletic is a subscription you would think their click bait strategy would be shelved. Maybe this is how young journalists conceive their craft and it is just automatic at this point.