annuallyinCatalonia.“Ihada greatgame
againstBarcelonaandI wasinformally
invitedtotrainwiththem,”hesays.“Itwas
anothergreatexperience.”
Pulisic’sfamilyfeltthat,ratherthanstayin
theUS,hewoulddevelopbetteracrossthe
Atlanticamidsuperiorstandards.“Myparents
wereverycautiousaboutthetiming,”hesays.
“Theydidn’twantmetogotoplayinEurope
tooearlyandforit alltobetoomuchforme.”
TherewasanofferofanMLScontractbut
hewaswantedbyDortmund,withtheirtrack
recordofdevelopingyouthandplayingyoung
playersinthefirstteam.Therewasanissue,
however:Europeanclubsaren’tallowedto
signnon-Europeanpassport-holdersuntil
they’re18.Pulisicwas 15 anddidn’thave
a Europeanpassport,whichmeantthathe
couldn’tplaygamesforhisfirstsixmonths
inGermanywhilehewaitedforhisCroatian
passporttobeissued.
“Thatwasheartbreaking,”revealsPulisic,
“butmygrandpawasCroatiansowewere
alloweda passport.PlayinginEuropeat 16
gavemea realadvantagebecauseit allowed
metoplayforDortmund’syouthteam.More
thanthat,it allowedmetomakemydebutin
theBundesligabeforeI was18.If I hadn’thad
a EuropeanpassportthenI wouldhavestill
beenintheUS,ratherthanplayinginone
ofthetopleaguesintheworld.At17,I was
trainingwiththepros,andthatmadea huge
differencetomygame.”
Whilehisfootballwentwell,movingto
a newcountrywherehedidn’tspeakthe
languagewasdifficultforPulisic.
“WHEn PULISIC PLAYS, EVERYTHInG
SEEMS SIMPLE AnD nORMAL. I WAnT
TO BE LIKE THAT” – JADOn SAnCHO
And language wasn’t the only barrier.
“On top of school,” recounts Pulisic, “I had
one German class each day and I also had to
go to the gym and to training. It was very
tiring – I’d go straight home to sleep. I had
to look at the bigger picture, though, and
persevere. I’m happy I went through it all.
And I can speak German, so it was worth it.”
On the pitch, Pulisic felt that, initially, other
players were looking at him and thinking,
‘Who is this American, coming to take our
place?’ But he got into the under-17 team that
won the Bundesliga title in his first season.
“We had a very good team and the coach,
Hannes Wolf, was a mentor. I got to train with
the pros, too. Jurgen Klopp called me up to be
with them. I looked around and saw players
like [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang, Mats
Hummels, [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, Marco Reus –
people I’d seen on TV. It seemed crazy, yet
they were so humble in training. You follow
their behaviour. Klopp would always smile.
He was friendly when he didn’t need to be.
I’m thankful that he gave me the chance.
That made me feel I was on the right path.”
Klopp moved to Liverpool, to be replaced in
Dortmund’s football factory by Thomas Tuchel.
“He invited me to Dubai for a mid-season
training camp,” says Pulisic. “He also asked
me how I’d feel about playing for the first
team full-time. I was in shock, partly because
that would mean stopping school completely!
The idea of training and then having the rest
of the day to myself was a dream.”
Tuchel saw the potential – the speed,
sharpness, strength, sublime fitness and
mature decision-making that belied his age
and led Jens Lehmann to say, “He makes
difficult things look easy, so he’s a boy to
watch.” Tuchel himself was just as glowing
in his praise, calling Pulisic “the kind of guy
who’s very self-confident, shows his talent on
the pitch, and doesn’t show any nerves under
pressure – which is a wonderful combination”.
But the pair didn’t always see eye-to-eye. The
current PSG coach wanted Pulisic at wing-back.
The American had never played there.
“I was frustrated,” he remembers. “But this is
something that every young player has to goAbove Dortmund
didn’t exactly regret
holding onto Pulisic
for one more season
Right The winger
gave the Yellow Wall
a tearful goodbye44 September 2019 FourFourTwo
CHRISTIAn
PULISIC“My dad lived with me for the first couple
of years until I was 18,” he says. “Dad wasn’t
much of a chef, so we would have a lot of
takeaway chicken from the same place a few
blocks from our apartment. But the food was
fine. The hardest bit was school.
“It was the hardest couple of years of my
life. I thought about home a lot. I didn’t speak
a word of German but I was put into a German
school with a full schedule. Because I couldn’t
understand the schedule, I didn’t know whereI was supposed to be. I hoped the teacher
would know I couldn’t speak the language,
but I had a situation where the teacher asked
me something in German. I didn’t know what
she was asking me, so I replied, “I’m sorry,
I don’t understand” in English. She looked at
me as if to say, ‘What is going on?’ Some of
the other kids explained to her that I didn’t
speak German. I hoped the teachers would
know that I was a new student from America,
there to play football, but this teacher didn’t.
“It was strange. There was no way that
I could learn fluent German in a few weeks,
so I had to change some classes around.
I was fine in English and art, but in other
classes I’d nod my head most of the time.”