In spite of the sheer size and scale of the United States of America, the fact that ‘soccer’ isn’t one of the most popular sports in the country means that very few players have made any kind of impact in the European leagues. One of the players that tried to change that was Christian Pulisic, who was linked with the likes of Liverpool and other American-owned clubs before eventually arriving at Stamford Bridge in 2019. Although it would be far from true to call his time in London a ‘failure’, it would also be unfair to characterise it as a complete success, all things considered. A player with ability, but who struggled to maker a meaningful impact.
Who is Christian Pulisic?
Although he might sound Australian given his middle name is ‘Mate’, Christian Mate Pulisic was actually born in the Pennsylvanian community of Hershey on the 18th of September 1998. He spent most of his childhood there, with both his mother, Kelley, and his father, Mark, playing collegiate soccer at George Mason University. In that sense, there is an argument that Christian was born to get into the game, given the fact that his dad played indoor soccer professionally in the 1990s and became a youth and professional coach. When his mother went on a teacher exchange in the early 2000s, he spent a year living in Oxfordshire.
Learning the art of Football
In spite of the fact that ‘soccer’ actually comes from the ‘association’ part of ‘association football’, we will simply refer to as football from now on and assume that we know that we’re not talking about the American variety. It was during his spell in Oxfordshire as a youngster that Christian Pulisic got his first real taste of proper football, playing in the youth team of Brackley Town. In 2006, after he and his mother had returned to the US, Pulisic started playing for Michigan Rush at the same time as attending Workman Elementary School. When his family returned to Hershey, he started playing for PA Classics.
PA Classics was a US Soccer Development Academy side, giving him a solid grounding in the basics of the game. He occasionally trained with the Harrisburg City Islanders, a professional side based locally that was known as Penn FC. In the summer of 2010, Pulisic was offered a five-day trial at Chelsea’s training base in Cobham, which he went on but struggled to impress. Ahead of his 16th birthday he went to Germany, able to get a European passport on account of the fact that his grandfather was Croatian, which meant that he was able to start playing once he turned 16-years-old rather than having to wait until he was 18.
Breaking Through at Borussia Dortmund
In the February of 2015, 17-year-old Pulisic was signed by the German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. He was put into the youth system, initially playing in the Under-17s before being moved up to play in the Under-19s. When he scored ten goals and assisted eight more in just 15 games, a decision was taken to move him up into the senior squad during the winter break. He played the second-half of two friendly matches, scoring a goal and assisting another to prove his worth to the club’s manager. He made his debut on the first team bench not long after, then played 90 minutes in a friendly against Union Berlin.
Having scored a goal and assisting another in that friendly match, Pulisic made his debut in the German top-flight during a game against Ingolstadt when he replaced Adrián Ramos in the second-half. He also came on in the second-half of a Europa League win over Porto, which Dortmund won 2-0. He made his first start in the Bundesliga on the 21st of February in a match against Bayer Leverkusen, then he started the Revierderby against Schalke 04 a few weeks later. The only reason he was substituted off in the second-half of both games according to his manager at the time, Thomas Tuchel, was his young age.
Catching Chelsea’s Eye
On the 17th of April 2016, Pulisic scored his first goal for Dortmund in a 3-0 win over Hamburg at the Westfalenstadion. At 17 years and 212 days old, it made him the youngest non-German and the fourth-youngest player ever to score a goal in the Bundesliga. When he netted against VfB Stuttgart six days later, he became the youngest player to score two goals in the German top-flight. Unsurprisingly, he began to earn the admiration of clubs from England. During the 2016 pre-season tournament, the International Cup, he scored a goal against Manchester City in stoppage time, sending the game to penalties.
He continued to score goals and assist others, such as during a Champions League group stage game against Real Madrid when his assist for André Schürrle secured a 2-2 draw after Dortmund had been trailing. On the 23rd of January 2017, Pulisic signed a new contract with Borussia Dortmund that would keep him at the club until 2020. He became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer in the Champions League when he netted in a 4-0 win over Benfica in a last 16 game, also assisting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the same game. A goal in the DFL-Supercup against Bayern Munich was enough to persuade Chelsea to act.
Signing for the Blues
On the second of January 2019, Pulisic signed a £58 million deal to move to Chelsea, with the contract agreeing that he would remain at Dortmund for the rest of the season. The price made him the most expensive American player ever, as well as the second-most expensive sale in Dortmund’s history after Ousmane Dembélé. When he arrived in the summer he was not shy in suggesting who he wanted to emulate, saying that Eden Hazard was his idol and that he’d like to replicate his form. His debut for the Blues came in a 4-0 defeat to Manchester United on the 11th of August 2019, with is first goals not far behind.
He broke his goalscoring duck with a ‘perfect’ hat-trick against Burnley on the 26th of October, becoming just the second American after Clint Dempsey to achieve the feat of scoring three times in the second game in the Premier League. Aged 21 years and 38 days at the time, he also became Chelsea’s youngster ever hat-trick scorer in the club’s history, as well as the first player to score a hat-trick with his left foot, right foot and head since Didier Drogba had managed it in 2010. Goals in his next two league games suggested that Chelsea had a real gem on their hands, even if things didn’t quite work out that way.
Winning Silverware
The first piece of silverware that Christian Pulisic had a hand in winning wasn’t actually anything to do with Chelsea. Liverpool were the runaway leaders at the top of the Premier League and Manchester City needed to defeat Chelsea in order to keep themselves in the hunt for the title. Instead, Pulisic scored the first goal in what would end up being a 2-1 win for the Blues, handing Liverpool the club’s first title of the Premier League era. On the first of August, the American scored the opening goal in the 2020 FA Cup final against Arsenal, becoming the first player from the US to score in the competition’s final match. Unfortunately for both Pulisic and Chelsea, he was substituted early in the second-half after pulling his hamstring, with the Gunners turning the game around and winning 2-1.
He ended his debut season at Stamford Bridge with 11 goals and ten assists, earning a nomination for the Premier League Young Player of the Season award. In the following season, Chelsea did well in the Champions League and Pulisic scored in a 1-1 away draw with Real Madrid, setting up Mason Mount in the second-leg to secure Chelsea’s place in the final. He came on in the final, making him the first American to play in it, which Chelsea won 1-0.
Leaving Chelsea
Because Chelsea won the Champions League, the club qualified for the UEFA Super Cup and Pulisic scored in the penalty shootout. Three days later he netted again, this time in Chelsea opening game of the 2021-2022 Premier League campaign. He was an early substitute in the FIFA Club World Cup final, helping Chelsea secure a 2-1 win over Palmeiras. When Chelsea made it to the League Cup final against Liverpool, a team he had scored against in a 2-2 game draw just a month or so earlier, he started the game, which ended 0-0 before the Merseyside club won the resulting penalty shootout 11-10 after Kepa Arrizabalaga missed.
New manager Graham Potter arrived at Stamford Bridge in the summer, with Pulisic scoring his first goal under the new manager on the eighth of October 2022. As the season wore on, however, he was starting fewer and fewer games whilst the Blues were signing more and more attacking players. In spite of interest from Lyon, Manchester United and Newcastle United, he made the move to AC Milan on the 13th of July 2023, signing a four-year contract.
The deal was worth a maximum of €22 million and the American soon found his form again in Italy. With 15 goals and ten assists in his first season, he was considered the Italian signing of the summer.