
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995                   TAG: 9504180149
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

REYNA AND MOORE STAYING WITH THEIR GERMAN TEAMS

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 begins play in April 1995.

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, reportedly for $600,000. Performance bonuses could raise that total to $1 million, according to Reyna's agent, Michael Becker.

The midfielder 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, 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 also is Moore's agent, said Saarbrucken has bought the rights to the player from the USSF for $250,000.

by CNB