B10 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2020
SOCCER
DORTMUND, Germany — Claudio Reyna cannot put a precise date on it, but it
must have been in the last six months or so that his identity — without him really
knowing it — began to change.
He is no longer Claudio Reyna, longstanding United States international, vet-
eran of a 15-year career in some of Europe’s biggest leagues, sporting director of
Major League Soccer’s Austin F.C. “Now, when I’m introduced to people, espe-
cially kids,” Reyna said, “it is just as Gio Reyna’s dad.”
Reyna is not alone in having to make that transformation. Soccer has always
run in families — Paolo Maldini, Frank Lampard and Jordi Cruyff all came from
stellar lineages — but now there is a new group of familiar names on the backs of
jerseys across Europe.
Erling Haaland, son of Alfie, the Norwegian international, plays with Reyna at
Borussia Dortmund. Marcus Thuram — whose father, Lilian, won the World Cup
with France in 1998 — has become one of the Bundesliga’s brightest talents atBorussia Mönchengladbach.
There is a Chiesa at Fiorentina, a Hagi playing for Romania and a Weah and a
Drogba coming through in France. There is even another Maldini — a third gen-
eration — now wearing the famous red and black stripes of A.C. Milan.
It is a moment that raises a familiar suite of questions. Does a famous name
weigh heavy on young shoulders? Do whispered accusations of nepotism — that
they are nothing more than “the son of,” as Lilian Thuram put it — provide inspi-
ration to young men trying to prove themselves?
And when your son hits the big time, how does that transition feel, to see your
renown eclipsed by that of your child? In interviews with both generations of the
Reyna, Haaland and Thuram families, it is clear — in their own words, edited and
condensed below for clarity — that becoming the father of a top player, rather
than being the son of one, is considerably easier.
“He has a platform to inspire kids,” Claudio Reyna said of realizing that his
son’s newfound status has diminished his own. “And that is cool, as a dad.”ERLING HAALAND As a kid, having a famous surname
was a positive and a negative. There were probably
some people who thought my name got me my
chance. For me, that was just motivation.
There were a lot of times I proved I was good in my
own right: at my hometown team, Bryne; at Molde,
when I started doing well there; at Red Bull
Salzburg; and now, at Dortmund. I have shown it a lot
of times.
Maybe we are now past the point when people can
say I am getting my chance because of who my dad is.
He has been at almost every good moment for me: He
is kind of a lucky charm.
Becoming a player always felt natural. It was my
dream — as it is for almost every kid — but it was
when I was 15 or 16 that I felt I could be a professional.
We talked a lot about it. It is good to have a father who
played, because he knows the game, knows what it is
to be a player. It was always my choice, but he helped
me to find the right places.
Since the moment I started, the goal has always
been to be better than him. I am in a good way, but
there is still a way to go yet. I haven’t surpassed him.
He had a not-bad career. I’m proud of him. Is he now
just the father of Erling Haaland? No. I would still say
no. He has a big name to live up to, you know.ALFIE HAALAND That’s very nice of him to say, but I
am definitely becoming known for being the father of
Erling Haaland. He is not the son of Alfie Haaland
anymore. At the start, it was the other way around,
but that’s a good thing. I hope he can become a lot
better than me.
I took a step back during his youth: I was not di-
rectly involved in his daily training or anything like
that. There was absolutely no pressure from me. But
he was always competing with his siblings — or with
me — and looking back, he was building that willing-
ness to do anything to win.
I don’t know where that comes from. Maybe you
need a gene to have the hunger, every single day, to do
your best. I have known a lot of players with talent,
but who didn’t want to sacrifice all the things you
need to be a really good player. Maybe I provided an
example, I don’t know. But there are a lot of sacrifices
to make, particularly in your teens and in your 20s,
and he has always been aware of that.GIOVANNI REYNA I had a few options for my first pro-
fessional deal. New York City F.C. wanted to sign me.
So did Manchester City. But once an offer came from
Borussia Dortmund, I couldn’t say no. It was every-
thing about the club, the opportunities they gave to
young players. And it was a chance to step away, to
create my own path, to do my own thing.
I think my dad understood that, from my perspec-
tive, the connection was a bit stressful. There were
times when I was coming through with the national
team that it was difficult to have the name. I was good
at 13 and 14, but it was not until a little later that I
really took off. I wasn’t always the best player on the
team, and people thought I could get away with more.
Maybe, at times, it was true.
He gave me advice when I knew I could turn pro-
fessional, but mainly he just put me out there and let
me decide where I wanted to go. He has always
wanted what I wanted. He is the opposite of pushy,
really: When I was little, he never told me to go out
and train five times a day. What pushed me on was my
competitive streak, my willingness to be better than
others.
He was, at times, a bit hard on me: He always fo-
cused on what had to get better. He often wouldn’t tell
me if I’d had a good game. But he knew what I had to
improve to make it to the highest level.CLAUDIO REYNA I knew that, at 17 or 18, you do not
speak much in the locker room. You’re walking into a
locker room of men. If you don’t respect that, the sen-
ior guys will throw you out. You have to have that un-
derstanding that you are in the first stage of your ca-
reer. It is not just one step and you’re there.
Now, though, because he’s very open, the stories he
tells me from behind the scenes in the locker room
remind me of being there: all the fun and the pranks
and the jokes. You see him growing into the squad,
that feeling of being accepted, of finding his way.
You still need the same values and standards as
you did when I was coming through — being a good
teammate, behaving well in the locker room — but for
Gio and his generation, players like Erling and Jadon
Sancho, the external factors are different, all of the
attention and the things thrown at you from a young
age.
He laughs off the silly and unrealistic stuff about
being the next superstar. His focus is simple: day to
day, year to year, building a good career. He knows he
will have difficult moments and tough times, that it’s
inevitable. But he knows he will have to keep going,
and he will have to handle them. I’m proud of how
much he gets it.MARCUS THURAM It was not always easy for me
when my dad came to watch me play. There is one
game I remember. The coach had asked me to do one
thing on the field, but my dad, standing on the touch-
line, was telling me to do something else. It was an
impossible situation: my coach saying one thing, and
Lilian Thuram another.
I listened to the coach, but after the game, my dad
asked the coach why he had asked me to play that
way. So you had this amateur youth coach explaining
to a World Cup winner his ideas about the game. After
a while, my dad starting laughing at the situation. I
think, when I was younger, some of my coaches did
not really like my dad.
It was only when I was 11 that he allowed me to
start playing soccer for a club, and even then it was
not a professional team’s youth academy. He encour-
aged me to do swimming, judo, everything, but soc-
cer had to wait.
He was trying to protect me; he knew that when
the son of someone arrives on a team, there can be
jealousy. Players want to foul you. Parents speak
badly about you. At times, I could not understand how
people could think like that — you think the goal-
keeper let me score because he likes my dad? I did
want to prove people wrong.
I’m not into competition, really: He was the first
Thuram, and being the first of something is always
stronger. All I can do is try to be the best Marcus Thu-
ram.LILIAN THURAM I remember the game he is talking
about. The coach changed which wing Marcus was
playing on so I couldn’t talk to him!
For a parent, the pleasure is in seeing your kids do
what they have always wanted to do. As a former
player, you know, too, exactly what he has had to do to
achieve it. He has always been a happy kid, always
smiling, like sunshine even in winter, but he always
knew he had to work to reach his dreams.
We have talked a lot about where that comes from.
People who live in a comfortable situation do not al-
ways have that hunger. They do not always want to
grow. They are not prepared to do the things you need
to develop. It does not depend on where you come
from or your background: It depends on what you are
prepared to do. It is inside you. It is not to do with your
family.
He always saw soccer as a dream, and it is really
important that he does not forget that. All children
want to be players, and very few can do it. That’s
something I tried to pass on to him: when he was
playing against Neymar in France, or now that he is
in Germany, playing against people he watched in the
2014 World Cup final. It’s important he realizes his
good luck, but he must never forget that this is his
dream. Happily, he has not lost that.Giovanni Reyna, left, is a young American star making his way in Germany, just as his father, Claudio Reyna, did.DAVID HECKER/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCKReflections on the Family Business
By RORY SMITHThere was an exhortation for patience
and a newfound optimism for the future.
There were assurances about a disci-
plined style of play and the willingness to
build a winning culture. And there was a
shout out to the 1990s Knicks.
It was not déjà vu. It was yet another
introduction of a new Knicks coach, this
time Tom Thibodeau, a former Coach of
the Year Award winner, whose hiring
was announced at a Zoom news confer-
ence on Thursday.
“This is a dream come true for me,”
Thibodeau, 62, said in prepared remarks.
“This is my dream job. I’ve been there
before. I have a great understanding of
New York. We have the best city in the
world. We have the best arena in the
world. We have the best fans in the
world.”
Thibodeau will become the team’s
eighth coach since 2011. He is the latest to
try to revive the Knicks, who will miss
the playoffs for the seventh straight year,
the longest streak for the franchise since
the 1960s.
The last time the Knicks were a peren-
nial powerhouse, Thibodeau had an in-
side view as an assistant coach from 1996
to 2003, including a finals run, a point he
made sure to emphasize to reporters. He
thanked Jeff Van Gundy, the former
Knicks coach, for hiring him then and
singled out players like Patrick Ewing,
Larry Johnson and Allan Houston, who
are considered near-deities among the
Knicks fan base.
“We saw how hard they played. They
gave us everything they had each and
every night,” Thibodeau said.
He was joined in the news conference
by Leon Rose, the recently hired Knicks
president, and Scott Perry, the general
manager, whom the team extended for at
least another year. Rose has had a two-
decades long relationship with Thi-
bodeau, in part because Rose was a long-
time agent at Creative Artists Agency,
which represents Thibodeau.
“The relationship gives me a comfort
level, knowing Tom for that long,” Rose
said. He added, “Tom was really the per-
fect candidate from the standpoint of
that he’s going to demand accountability,
he’s going to have development and he’s
going to create a winning culture.”
Thibodeau said he was drawn to the
Knicks because of its roster — which he
called “young and talented” — his con-
nections to the Knicks front office, as
well as the team’s abundance of draft
picks and cap space. He also said that, as
far as on-court play, he would focus on
five pillars: defense, rebounding, low
turnovers, having the ball touch the
paint and making the extra pass.
“You go step by step. I think you don’t
skip over anything,” Thibodeau said.
“The first thing is to lay the foundation,
develop your plan and then work the
plan.”
While Thibodeau mentioned RJ Bar-
rett and Mitchell Robinson as two cur-
rent Knicks players he was fond of, it’s
not clear, given the team’s draft picks and
cap space, what the roster will look like
next season, which Rose acknowledged.
Rose said that the Knicks “had not set a
timeline” for when the team would be a
playoff contender again.
“We felt that Tom was that coach that
can take us from development to becom-
ing a perennial winner,” Rose said.
Thibodeau spent more than 20 years
as an assistant coach in the N.B.A., de-
veloping a reputation for designing
strong defenses, having an obsessive
work ethic and playing his stars for
heavy minutes. He was the architect of
the defense for the 2008 Boston Celtics,
who won a championship.
His first head coaching job came in the
2010-11 season with the Chicago Bulls,
where he went to the Eastern Confer-
ence finals in his first year. Thibodeau
went 255-139 with the Bulls but was fired
in 2015 after clashes with the front office.
He landed with a rebuilding team — the
Minnesota Timberwolves — in 2016 as
coach and president of basketball opera-
tions. Thibodeau was fired abruptly last
season after only making the playoffs
once and going 97-107.
He told reporters on Thursday that
while he had caught a few Knicks games
this season, he also traveled quite a bit,
including a trip to unwind in Miami.
“I also went on vacation a couple of
times,” Thibodeau said. “I know people
don’t think I do that.”
The New Coach,
Another One,
Calls the Knicks
‘My Dream Job’
By SOPAN DEBTom Thibodeau will be the Knicks’
eighth head coach since 2011.
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