Dortmund's Giovanni Reyna makes Goal's NxGn list; is U.S. teen the next Christian Pulisic?

Jacob Hancock

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Dortmund's Giovanni Reyna makes Goal's NxGn list; is U.S. teen the next Christian Pulisic? image

Stop me if you've heard this before: An American teenager goes to Borussia Dortmund and quickly makes a name for himself in the Bundesliga.

Such was the path of Christian Pulisic, who quickly became one of the hottest properties in football after an impressive stretch of play at Dortmund. Now it looks as though fellow U.S. international Giovanni Reyna could be following a similar trajectory.

Reyna, 17, was one of the youngest players named to Goal's NxGn list of top 50 wonderkids, consisting of players born in 2001 or later. He came in at No. 23, a highly respectable ranking for someone who has only played 11 games at the senior level.

But when your first goal looks like this, the hype tends to build pretty fast.

That was just Reyna's fourth appearance for Dortmund. His debut against Augsburg made him the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga, surpassing Pulisic. He also became the youngest American ever to play in the Champions League, and he assisted on Dortmund's go-ahead goal in its Round of 16 first leg against PSG.

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Prior to joining the senior team, Reyna bagged eight goals in 15 appearances for Dortmund's U-19 team, including four goals in four appearances in the UEFA Youth League.

The son of former U.S. men's national team standout Claudio Reyna has represented the U.S. up to the U-17 level; he featured in three games at the U-17 World Cup.

With his early success at Dortmund, it's easy to see why the younger Reyna is drawing parallels to Pulisic, who is now starring at Chelsea. Fellow American international Tyler Adams, who also plays in the Bundesliga with RB Leipzig, compared the two along with 21-year-old Schalke standout/USMNT midfielder Weston McKennie.

"I think his ease with the ball [makes him special]. He's a player that, personally, for me, you have players like Christian [Pulisic], you have players like Weston [McKennie], and then you have players like Gio, who make everything look easy," Adams told ESPN's Herculez Gomez. "Those are the players that you just enjoy playing with because you can give them the ball in tough spots, you know he's going to deal with it, you know he's going to make things happen.

"He just goes about his business. He's not bothered by anything."

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Reyna may even have more potential than Pulisic, which is staggering considering former USMNT standout Eddie Johnson called Pulisic "the best American player that I've ever seen."

"I think his talent is similar to Christian Pulisic, or maybe a little bit better," said former Borussia Dortmund assistant coach Jorg Heinrich. "But we want to keep him grounded because we’ve seen what happens to a lot of the young players."

Pulisic didn't crack Goal's list until his final year of eligibility in 2017, though it's possible his success has paved the way for Reyna and helped him receive even more hype.

It's fair to consider that Reyna might end up being better than Pulisic, but it's also worth noting that no one yet knows how good Pulisic will be. He's still just 21, young enough to make Lionel Messi's top 15 "youth on the rise" list.

Whether you're Team Pulisic or Team Reyna, the American Outlaws will just be happy that both players are part of Team USA.

Jacob Hancock