Two U.S. Stars Reject Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer has suffered the first two setbacks in its quest to sign all of the leading U.S. players by the time the proposed league opens next April.

Midfielder Claudio Reyna, 21, and striker Joe-Max Moore, 24, two of the U.S. national team’s most promising young players, have decided to stay with their German teams.

Reyna, a three-time All-American who helped lead Virginia to the NCAA title in 1991, ’92 and ‘93, re-signed with Bayer Leverkusen of the German first division for a reported $600,000. Performance bonuses can raise that total to $1 million, according to Reyna’s agent, Michael Becker.

The midfielder, who played every minute of the U.S. Olympic team’s three matches in the 1992 Barcelona Games, is widely regarded as the playmaking star of the future for the national team. Spanish champion Barcelona tried to sign him immediately after the 1992 Olympics, but Reyna instead chose to return to Virginia.

He was sidelined for the 1994 World Cup and this year’s Pan American Games because of injury.

Moore, a former UCLA striker with more than two dozen national team appearances, has been playing for Saarbrucken in the German second division while on loan from the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Becker, who is also Moore’s agent, said Saarbrucken has bought the rights to the player from the USSF for $250,000.

The top U.S. scorer in 1993 with eight goals for the national team, Moore is regarded as one of the leading American strikers, having led UCLA in scoring in 1991. He also scored the winning goal in overtime as the United States beat Mexico in the gold medal game at the ’91 Pan American Games in Cuba.

The following year, Moore, who is from Irvine, scored a memorable free-kick goal against Italy in the opening game of the 1992 Olympics. He also scored in his debut for the national team, against European champion Denmark in 1993 and got four goals in an 8-0 victory over El Salvador at the Coliseum later that year.

The decision by Moore and Reyna to stay with their European club teams for the 1995-96 season could prompt other American stars playing abroad to do the same rather than risk signing with MLS, at least until the new league has proven itself.

However, MLS said Monday it had been aware that the two players would re-sign with their German clubs and that the league remains confident it will be able to sign a majority of the U.S. World Cup ’94 team and make it financially viable for players with foreign clubs, possibly including Reyna and Moore, to return to the United States.

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The U.S. women’s national team defeated France, 3-0, at Strasbourg on Monday to win a four-nation international tournament that also included Italy and Canada.

Carin Gabarra, Kristine Lilly and Mia Hamm scored for the U.S.

team, which earlier had beaten Italy, 3-0, and Canada, 5-0.

The American team will embark on a five-game trip through the United States, starting with a game against Finland at Atlanta on April 28.