How good is Christian Pulisic really?
Does CAP10 America have what it takes to lead USMNT out of Group B?
It’s the semi-finals in the Champions League. Two teams, one representing Spain and the other representing England are facing off in a fierce home and away playoff for chance to win the biggest prize in club soccer and they are neck and neck. There are 22 players on the pitch but across the United States everyone is watching one. Christian Pulisic is finally playing on the world’s biggest state and he has a chance to help his team win the Champions League, but they have to get to a final first.
A quiet kid from Hershey, Pennsylvania made a run in behind the back line. Rudiger lofts the ball into Pulisic’s path, and there was only one way that play was going to end.
Soccer or football for many is something people have strong feelings about…. There is a reason it’s called “the world’s game”. The Champions League final is the equivalent of the American Football’s Superbowl, only it’s many magnitudes more popular. There has never really been an American soccer superstar. Freddy Adu, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard are the closest we’ve come but they haven’t come close to the heights of Lionel Messi or Neymar.
US Soccer fans have been waiting for decades for a player like Christian Pulisic… but after a ridiculously fast rise to stardom, and a couple of years seemingly falling back to reality, how good is Christian Pulisic actually?
The story begins with Christian's parents Mark and Kelley, who met while playing football at George Mason University in the 1980s. Mark later became a professional indoor soccer player, spending his eight-year career with the Harrisburg Heat before moving into coaching. He insists that he and Kelley never put pressure on Christian – who was born in September 1998 – to follow in their footballing footsteps.
"We almost pushed him in directions other than soccer,” Mark Pulisic told philly.com. "He wasn't forced in any manner. I wanted to make sure he was making the decision. Things don't work if you're forcing training on kids."
When Christian was seven and entering second grade, the family moved to England so Kelley could work abroad on a teaching exchange. That was a pivotal year in Christian's development. He experienced the grip soccer has on that country, and it validated his own interest. He played in the youth ranks for Brackley Town, a semi-professional team currently in the fifth tier of English soccer. Most impactful was the time after school when Christian would escape to a field or hard court and play pickup soccer with local children.
"A lot of people don't realise but it really brought on my passion for the game," Pulisic told The Daily Mail. "I just started to love it so much and I said: 'Wow. I'm pretty good! I think I can do something with this game.'"
"We were football crazy," Mark admitted to Sky Sports. "We travelled all over and took in all the nuances of what English football is: the craziness outside the stadiums, the chanting inside and signing the songs. Christian remembers it to this day. For sure it had an impact in the short time we were there."
Pulisic even made a pitstop to train with Chelsea’s academy where he first met a young Mason Mount.
Christian was on a week-long trial to join the Chelsea Academy in 2010 at age 11. Little did he know he’d be back in Europe sooner rather than later. After playing for academy teams in the United States, he signed for Borussia Dortmund as a 16-year-old in February 2015 and wasted little time breaking into their first team.
As a 16 year old he started training with the first team, surrounded by legendary players like Mats Hummels and Marco Reus. It was Jurgen Klopp who gave him his first taste of first team soccer.
Pulisic made his debut for Dortmund in January 2016, at the age 17 years, 4 months and 12 days old becoming the third-youngest player in the club's history at the time – recently made fourth by fellow countryman Gio Reyna.
Pulisic's rise was meteoric from that point on. His first full season in the first team saw him make 29 appearances in the Bundesliga, as well as 10 in the UEFA Champions League – becoming the youngest Dortmund player to score in the competition against Benfica in March 2017. That year Pulisic, Ousmane Dembele, and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang were one of the most threatening attacking trio in the world.
The Hershey, Pennsylvania native continued to climb up the pecking order and would make 32 league appearances in 2017/18 at the age of just 19.
In his final season with Dortmund, 2018/19, Pulisic signed for Chelsea during the January transfer window but moved back to Dortmund on loan for the remainder of the campaign.
All in all Pulisic scored 10 goals in 81 appearances for the German club that gave him his debut.
The sale to Chelsea made Capt10 America the single largest transfer paid for an American player in history. The London Blues shelled out almost $75,000,000 for Pulisic’s signature.
Pulisic has made Premier League appearances scoring 19 and assisting 8. Christian’s complete hat trick with his left, right, and head against Burnley began his Chelsea career in style. Fans had high hopes for Pulisic but his career as a blue has been volatile. Marred with niggling injuries and feuds with coaches, Pulisic hasn’t quite seemed like the skillful, nimble dribbler we saw at Dortmund.
Frank Lampard gave him the #10 - a legendary number in soccer lore because Pulisic earned it with his performances and production on the pitch. But as soon as his old Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel took over, Pulisic’s confidence seemed to take a dive. Pulisic was critical in the Champions League victory in the 2020/21 season but that didn’t win him any favor with the manager… it may have even created more tension. Pulisic writes in his new book that Tuchel told him he would start the home leg against Real Madrid and changed his mind at the last second. Pulisic was disappointed and dumbfounded with Tuchel’s choices.
He hasn’t really ever put it completely together while with Chelsea and has been consistently surrounded by controversy. With Graham Potter coming in to right the ship - is this finally the moment when Pulisic becomes the player we all want him to be?
With a goal and an assist in his first few games under Potter things look to be turning around.
But why do we think that he can be some type of American soccer messiah? Well it’s because of what we’ve seen him do in a USMNT jersey.
Pulisic represented the United States at U-15 and U-17 levels. He scored two goals in 10 appearances for the under-15 team. He captained the U-17 team at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup, where he scored a goal and an assist in three games. During his two years with the team, Pulisic scored a total of 20 goals in 34 games. Pulisic had been eligible to play internationally for Croatia but declined the opportunity.
On March 27, 2016, Pulisic was called up to the senior team by head coach Jürgen Klinsmann ahead of a World Cup qualifying game against Guatemala. Two days later, he made his debut in that match, a 4–0 win at the Mapfre Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, as an 81st-minute substitute for Graham Zusi. He thus became the youngest American to play in a World Cup qualifier.
Pulisic was included in the senior squad for the Copa América Centenario, which was hosted by the United States. A week later, he became the youngest player to score for the United States in the modern era, when he put home a late goal in a 4–0 friendly win against visiting side Bolivia.
On September 2, 2016, Pulisic recorded two goals and an assist in a World Cup qualifying match in a 6–0 victory over Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, thereby becoming the youngest person to score in a World Cup qualifier for the United States and the youngest player to score a brace in American history. In the following match against Trinidad and Tobago, he broke another youth record by becoming the youngest American to start a World Cup qualifying match. In the following year of qualification, on June 8, Pulisic scored both goals in a 2–0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago. In the last two matches of qualification, Pulisic scored a goal in each: a 4–0 victory over Panama and a 1–2 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago. He finished the fifth round as the top scorer with five goals. Despite his strong performances, the United States failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The loss to Trinidad and Tobago is considered the most humiliating performance in American soccer history.
On November 20, 2018, Pulisic became the youngest player to captain the United States national team in a friendly defeat to Italy. Pulisic was 20 years and 63 days old.
On March 26, 2019, Christian Pulisic became the youngest United States player to score 10 international goals at 20 years, 189 days old.
On June 6, 2021, Pulisic captained the United States national team to a 3–2 victory in the first-ever CONCACAF Nations League final against Mexico, scoring the winning goal by converting a penalty in the 114th minute.
On March 27, 2022, Pulisic scored his first international hat-trick for the U.S. men's national team during their win over Panama in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification. His first two goals from the hat trick came from penalty kicks.
He is the youngest American player to do a lot of things. He lead the generation forward and is a huge reason why there are so many young Americans abroad today. And yet - US fans will still feel like there is one extra level that he can reach to become a true world-class star.
Christian Pulisic is an incredible talent and still only 24 years old. If he can stay healthy and find prolonged form for club and country he is worthy of being one of the best in the world. But how long have all fans (club and country) been clamoring for that? As of now he’s an above-average player with unfulfilled potential.