Gio Reyna ready to make a big jump for Borussia Dortmund this season

Borussia Dortmund youngster Gio Reyna was interviewed by Sports Illustrated ahead of the coming season with the youngster speaking on his goals for the season.

Gio Reyna was covered in a very thorough article by Sports Illustrated that was released on Tuesday, with the Dortmund youngster spilling the beans on his past experiences and goals for the upcoming season. Reyna spoke in depth on his experiences breaking through to the first team last season.

The biggest takeaway from Reyna’s interview was that this may be a 17 year old, but it is a 17 year old brimming with self-confidence. Not in an arrogant way though, Reyna definitely believes in himself but he believes in Borussia Dortmund’s process as well. He understands it’s not a race to develop and it takes time, but based on the feedback from his youth coach Otto Addo it’s not going to be a long time. He was quoted saying the following.

"“We’re still talking after every match. Some players, they need months to develop, to get further, to get to the next step. With him, if you talk with him about something, maybe it would happen the next week, but by the second week it won’t happen again. You see a progression straight away. He’s learning very, very fast, so the process is very, very fast.” – Otto Addo in Sports Illustrated"

Addo went on to say a lot of other complimentary things but the biggest theme was Reyna’s ability to learn and process the game at a very high level.

Reyna also spoke on his anxiousness on getting his first start under his belt last season and the seemingly long road that led up to it, even if it was a short road in reality. It’s only natural that a young player wants to play more and more and he explained how he had to wrap his head around the reality he couldn’t be upset with that.

"“Look, when Jadon first came he wasn’t playing, and he was my age. When Christian first came, he wasn’t starting every game. So just the process they have with these players, it was just frustrating for me because I thought I wanted a bigger opportunity and a bigger role to start coming a little bit sooner.” – Gio Reyna in Sports Illustrated"

Finally, Reyna touched on the upcoming season and his goals of playing more minutes and starting as many games as he can. Taking that next step is very important to the youngster who is looking to establish himself as more than just a promising youngster. With the trust of head coach Lucien Favre he is sure to get his chances to prove his worth and has already started that with a strong pre-season, scoring 3 goals in the first two games.

"“Now I’m ready. Even towards the end of the year, I wasn’t fully like out of my shell. But this season, coming back, I think a lot will change. Against Leipzig, I think you can see a little bit of it—that I was ready to play. I think now this season, I want to make a really big jump.” – Gio Reyna in Sports Illustrated"

Very strong words from the young American, who will be one to watch this season for Borussia Dortmund.