I have long said that Christian Pulisic is the greatest American male soccer player that we have ever produced. The USMNT captain and midfielder is still only 24 years old even though it feels like he has been around for much longer than that. Today, his long rumored transfer from Chelsea (England) to AC Milan (Italy) was finally confirmed as he signed a four-year contract with the Serie A giants. If you think that going from one of the top clubs in the Premier League to AC Milan is a lateral move, then you have not been paying attention to Chelsea lately. They finished in 12th place (out of 20 clubs) last season and after a revolving door of managers, Pulisic was barely getting any playing time so it was time to find a new home and a fresh start.
Christian, his parents and whoever smartly advised them were way ahead of the curve when he was growing up in Hershey, PA as they made the fantastic decision to move him (along with his father) to Germany when he was a teenager and where he could train full-time with the Borussia Dortmund academy team rather than dominate stateside and eventually what, go to college and star in MLS? After four seasons in the Bundesliga where he scored 13 goals, he earned a four-year deal with Chelsea where he ended up scoring 20 goals. It would be silly to label him a bust there as he was part of a Champions League title club in 2021 but based on injuries and signings of other talented guys that play similar positions to him, he found himself mostly on the bench last season when it all fell apart for the Blues.
The other teams that showed the most interest in Pulisic this time around were reportedly Juventus (Italy), Lyon (France) and Galatasaray (Turkey). He rightly rejected a move to Lyon which would have been a backwards move for his career and needless to say, Turkey is not where its at either at this point. You won't find many more powerhouse historical soccer clubs than AC Milan who have won the Champions League seven times (the 2nd most behind Real Madrid) and an amazing 19 Serie A titles with the most recent coming in 2022. Furthermore, they lost to their chief rival Inter Milan in the Champions League semifinals this past spring so they are not far very away from gaining additional sacred hardware. Not for nothing, I would also say that getting away from the rough and tumble style in England should also sneaky help the more technically sound Pulisic who is listed at 5-foot-10 but only 150 pounds.
Adapting to a new country, city, language, club, teammates and league no doubt will pose some serious challenges for Christian at least in the beginning but thankfully he has some friendly faces on his new team so he should not feel alone by any means. English midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek-his former Chelsea teammate-also recently signed with The Rossoneri. Additionally, USMNT defender Sergino Dest (on loan from Barcelona) is still there along with another former Chelsea teammate and French striker Olivier Giroud who played a key role in his recruitment. USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter notwithstanding, the team is unquestionably making incredible strides globally like never before. There are American players in all the top soccer leagues around the world. Still, we are not and we will never be known as a true soccer factory like Brazil, England, Spain, etc. That means that our homegrown prodigies like Pulisic are so precious and therefore we want to see him succeed at the highest level, especially as he enters what should be his prime. If he gets his club career back on track, it would be hard to quantify how much that will influence future American kids from getting into soccer and sticking with it rather than choosing other sports over it.
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