FIFA informed U.S. Soccer today (June 12) that Claudio Reyna would be eligible to represent the United States in the 1996 Olympic men’s soccer tournament, according to U.S. Soccer secretary general Hank Steinbrecher.
FIFA’s position had been that Reyna was ineligible due to its new rule that players are no longer eligible to play in more than one age-group world championship. (The rule did not apply to overage players selected as “wild-card” players for the men’s Olympic soccer tournament.)
But for the recent change in the cutoff date for players in age-group tournaments — from Aug. 1 to Jan. 1 — Reyna would not have been considered an “under-23 player” player for the purposes of this year’s Olympic tournament. Reyna was born July 20, 1973, in Springfield, N.J.
Reyna, ineligible as an under-23 player since he played at Barcelona ’92, is expected to be selected as one of three “wild-card players” by U.S. Olympic coach Bruce Arena. The other are expected to be goalie Kasey Keller and defender Alexi Lalas.
Reyna had played with the U.S. under-23 team in a recent friendly against a League of Ireland XI.