The Claudio Reyna era is over at Austin FC.
Just over three weeks after details broke in a controversy involving Reyna, his wife, and former U.S. men's national team head coach Gregg Berhalter, the club announced via press release on Thursday that Reyna is stepping down from his role as sporting director with the club, shifting to what's being termed as an "technical advisor" role.
In the restructuring, Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff will get an interim "chief soccer officer" title, while the club's director of player personnel, Sean Rubio, will be named interim sporting director during the transition.
"We’re grateful for Claudio’s contributions to both our club and our community,” said Austin FC majority owner and chief executive officer Anthony Precourt by way of a press release. “Claudio has been committed to the cause of building a club that inspires Austin, and he will remain in a position to contribute to our organization.”
What happens next
Precourt was also quoted in the release expressing confidence in the direction of the club under Wolff, Rubio and others still involved with the technical side of the Austin FC org chart. “I’m confident in the leadership team that we have in place at our Club. Josh is a tremendous leader and is without question one of the best coaches in North America. Working alongside Sean, whose talent and experience has been absolutely critical in our roster construction over the past two seasons, I have full faith that we have the people in place to continue to compete for trophies and make Austin proud.”
Perhaps to signal some degree of continuity with the club, Reyna is also quoted in the release, attributed as saying, "I am grateful that Anthony and the organization have given me the opportunity to scale back my role and responsibilities while continuing to contribute to the success of a club that I love. I take great pride in what we have accomplished but am looking forward to a less all-consuming work pace that still permits me to assist ongoing club development.”
The club announced a number of restructuring moves related to the announcement in the release, including:
- Wolff and Rubio will "jointly assume additional day-to-day responsibilities, including the club’s talent identification, acquisition, and management strategy, as well as full technical and high-performance duties," with both reporting directly to Precourt, and with Wolff replacing Reyna as the technical staff's chief executive;
- Rubio will oversee the Austin FC Academy;
- Assistant coach Nolan Sheldon "will assume additional responsibilities within Austin FC’s sporting operations, overseeing the connectivity between the Academy, ATXFC II, and the first team" — in a role some clubs place under the director of methodology title.
What it means
The announcement ends what's been a somewhat unconventional tenure for Austin FC's first-ever sporting director, which began with Reyna's appointment in November 2019 — four months after Wolff was selected to helm the club. Typically, new MLS clubs will line up a sporting director before doing a head coaching search. In Austin FC's case, CEO Anthony Precourt knew Wolff well from their days together in Columbus, where Wolff served as an assistant coach to Berhalter. The July 2019 hiring of Wolff, as evinced by Precourt's participation in the unveiling press event at the Continental Club, helped Precourt showcase his intent for Austin to be among the top-tier of MLS clubs.
Reyna's hire was another step in that process, as he was seen as instrumental in helping New York City FC transition from an expansion club to a perennial playoff contender in the same role there.
As sporting director for Verde, he was instrumental in building the squad that went to the Western Conference final in just its second year, led by MVP candidate Sebastián Driussi, brought over from Zenit St. Petersburg during the 2021 summer transfer window.
Reyna, in overseeing Austin FC transfer business, was able to orchestrate a deal for a familiar face — Alex Ring, who moved from NYCFC to be one of the expansion team's anchors and first captains. Reyna was also there when Austin signed its first-ever player — Paraguayan winger and U22 initiative player Rodney Redes, who is about to start a pivotal year in his development and soccer-playing future — and its first-ever designated player, Cecilio Dominguez, a more senior Paraguayan winger who left the club last summer following a domestic violence investigation.
News of the public rift between Berhalter and the Reynas came to light on Jan. 4, involving an incident of domestic violence involving Berhalter and his then-girlfriend (and now wife) that he only recently admitted to publicly, Berhalter's allegations that the Reynas sought to use information about the incident for leverage in exchanges with other U.S. Soccer officials (with the word "blackmail" even being invoked) and a public flap involving the Reynas' son Gio and the coach over World Cup 2022-related conflicts, made more public when Berhalter provided details about the conflict at a December 2022 seminar which many felt should have been kept in house.
The bizarre revelations about conflict between the former USMNT teammates breaking in the first few days of the New Year, combined with Reyna's increasingly noticeable absence from the public eye — and even official Austin FC press releases which would have normally invoked his name — led to growing speculation about Reyna's future with the club.
News of Reyna's exit converged with U.S. Soccer's announcement on Thursday that its sporting director Earnie Stewart — a key player in the Berhalter-Reyna saga — will be leaving the organization, along with general manager Brian McBride. Stewart is leaving U.S. Soccer to join the board of directors for PSV Eindhoven — the Netherlands club that announced a partnership with Austin FC last September.
While there's no news about Berhalter returning to coach the national team, U.S. Soccer still hasn't officially closed the door on that possibility, and insisted in a press event to announce Stewart's exit that it was unrelated to Berhalter or the investigation. It certainly feels like there's still more to unfold in the U.S. Soccer episode — as the co-hosts of the next World Cup continue a camp with an interim coach overseeing the squad this week, and as concerned fans wait for whatever the ongoing investigation might turn up when it goes public.
For Austin FC, it's clear a chapter has closed. While the announcement indicates Reyna will be nominally involved in club matters, the details of the release indicate the club has a pathway that will forge forward with Rubio in an interim role and Wolff occupying a similar space to the LA Galaxy's Greg Vanney while that team's president, Chris Klein, finishes serving out a league-imposed suspension of duties.
And as the Austin FC release reminded everyone, the show must go on — with the team playing FC Cincinnati on Friday in a Florida preseason match, less than 24 hours removed from the Reyna announcement shockwaves.