Fans of Borussia Dortmund should not be concerned about the loss of Jadon Sancho this summer, as USA international Gio Reyna is ready to fill the Englishman's shoes - and shirt - and lead BVB to success in 2021/22.
Sancho's departure does leave him with 38 Bundesliga goals and 52 assists from 104 appearances in Germany's top-level, including eight goals and 11 assists last season, but club officials have moved quickly to fill the void.
Donyell Malen, a Dutchman, has been brought in to give more high-powered weaponry to Dortmund's attack, and they already have a player ready to step in and fill the vacuum left by Sancho in the form of Reyna.
Sancho's No.7 shirt was quickly snatched up by Reyna, indicating that the 18-year-old is dead set on carrying over the baton from his former teammate.
It may seem like a lot to ask of a teenager, but the swift ascension of both of those players proves that age is just a number, especially at Dortmund.
Just ask Erling Haaland, the 21-year-old talisman who, more than anybody, will be hoping that Reyna can supply him with the weapons to propel Marco Rose's team forward this season, after their fruitful 18-month association.
As Dortmund's pre-season preparations intensified, Haaland told the reporters, "I just turned 21, but it's true, I'm not the youngest for a long time." "I tell them to be themselves and not be afraid of being judged. That's how I did it when I first arrived in this country. "I tell them they're good and there's a reason they're here," I say.
Reyna is clearly a fearless footballer, as he had the most on-field duels (607) of any Dortmund player in 2020/21, winning 48 percent of them.
It's also clear that there are many compelling reasons why Reyna is such a vital player for Dortmund at such a young age, and Sancho's departure now gives him the chance to step up, as he has done at every stage of his career thus far.
Reyna is the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga, the second youngest American to score in the league, the first USA player to record a hat-trick of assists in a single Bundesliga game, and the youngest player from his country to play in - and win - a major European domestic cup final.
On the field, this adolescent is unstoppable. He has no desire to take his foot off the gas pedal, and he is difficult to stop, as seen by his 49 fouls against Reyna last year.
Last season, it was the then-17-year-old who kicked off Dortmund's campaign with their first goal of the 2020/21 season: not Haaland, not Sancho. Reyna went on to have a good start to the season, contributing seven BVB contributions (three goals, four assists) in the first 11 games.
If he can bolt from the gate once more against Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 1, it will lessen the pain of Sancho's departure even more.
The actual test will be whether Reyna can maintain his form over the course of a season, giving the kind of consistency that both Haaland and Sancho have.
Last season, for example, Reyna handily outscored Sancho over the first 11 matchdays (Sancho was goalless during that period), and by the end of the season, the Englishman had comfortably outscored his American teammate's four goals and five assists.
However, Reyna's contribution to Dortmund's run-in - which guaranteed UEFA Champions League football for the coming season as well as DFB Cup glory - was just as important as anyone else's, indicating that he is maturing into the additional responsibilities that will soon be placed on his shoulders.
He started all but one of their seven consecutive victories to close out the Bundesliga season, contributing a goal and an assist in the process. Sancho, on the other hand, scored two goals and added two assists while appearing in only three of the games.
Reyna started 23 times in the Bundesliga and appeared in 32 of Dortmund's 34 league games, as well as eight of ten Champions League matches and five of six domestic cup matches. Only seasoned duo Marco Reus (49) and Mats Hummels (48) featured in more matches in all competitions than Reyna (46) while being one of the youngest players in the squad.
While Haaland and Sancho made headlines for splitting the goals in the 4-0 win against RB Leipzig in the DFB Cup final, Reyna's dominance in the competition's semi-final shows that he is more than capable of putting in big performances when his team needs them the most.
The United States international, who has four goals in just eight senior appearances for his country, scored twice in the first 23 minutes of the semi-final to ensure Dortmund's place in the final.
Reyna's meteoric rise shows that the sky is the limit - not only for him but also for Dortmund and the United States. And it is he who is now throwing down the gauntlet, laying out his own grandiose goals for the future.
He remarked in The Players' Tribune, "I already feel like I'm becoming part of the new generation of big players." "I don't want to merely be a good American player," he says. I aim to be in the top ten players in the world on a consistent basis."
On this evidence, you'd bet on Reyna to accomplish just that, giving Dortmund fans plenty of reasons to believe in their young American's ability to match Sancho's contributions.
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