Great Article on Joe Gyau

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“It has been a breath of fresh air to get a new club, where they are genuinely behind me and genuinely believe in me,” he said in a phone interview Friday morning. “I’m trying to pay them back for showing faith in me.”

Gyau, a swift winger who followed an non-traditional American career path, is not ready for Dortmund’s first team. He is a member of BVB’s under-23 squad, which competes in the third tier of German soccer.

In last weekend’s opener, Gyau played all 90 minutes of a 2-1 victory at Rot-Weiss Erfurt and is likely to retain a starting role Saturday at home against Holstein Keil. The second team plays home matches at Stadion Rote Erde, located in the shadows of Dortmund’s famed Signal Iduna Park.

While Gyau will play primarily for the U-23s, Dortmund Coach Juergen Klopp might summon him to the first team at times this season. Aside from league and domestic cup action, the club qualified for the Champions League by finishing second behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga last season.

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Gyau is not the only American from the Washington area at Dortmund: Manassas-raised midfielder Junior Flores, 18, will compete for playing time with the U-19 and U-23 squads. Flores committed to Dortmund almost two years ago.

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Gyau’s move to Dortmund was in the works since last winter when the relationship with Hoffenheim deteriorated. Behind the scenes, his representatives and family worked to find a new destination. The transfer, estimated at $160,000, was consummated this summer. Gyau signed a two-year contract. Dortmund would have to pay additional funds to Hoffenheim if Gyau becomes a first-team regular.

He couldn’t wait to make the move.

“I was pretty down on the situation,” he said of Hoffenheim.

At one point, he said he was notified by text — not in person or by phone — that he would not train with Hoffenheim’s first team and would play with the club’s second unit in the fourth division. “Getting out of there was good for me,” he said.

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The soccer gene also reached Gyau’s younger sister, Mia, a U.S. youth national team player entering her junior year at Bullis School in Maryland. She has already committed to Duke University. At the moment, though, she is in Germany for informal workouts with women’s clubs. Duisburg and Bayern Munich are among the possibilities, Phillip said.

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