term.Theywerealsobeatenhomeandaway
bySpursintheChampionsLeaguelast16.
Bayernhadsavedtheirbestfortherun-in,
losingonlyonceaftermid-November.“They
wereasgoodinthesecondhalfoftheseason
as we were in the first,” says Pulisic. “It was
a shame we couldn’t win the Bundesliga, but
when I spoke to the fans before my final home
game, I told them that we’d given everything.
I also told them that, after five years in the city,
Dortmund would always be a home for me.”
He did this with a microphone as he faced
the vast Sudtribune, the 26,000-capacity
terrace – football’s biggest.
“I’m not emotional but I was that day,” he
says. “I stood in front of all those faces and
spoke to them in German before the game,
then I struggled to get it together, because
I was crying in the tunnel when I returned to
the dressing room. They sang my name one
last time. It wasn’t easy to leave Dortmund.”
But leave Dortmund he did, after 127
first-team games, 19 goals and 26 assists.
Pulisic continues, “It has long been a dream
to play in England, and Chelsea was one of
the clubs I knew when I was growing up in
the US – I watched players like Frank Lampard.
I had a gut feeling that Chelsea was the right
choice. It’s pretty cool that Frank will be my
coach – and Chelsea have a great squad.”
A two-window FIFA transfer ban means the
American willbeChelsea’sonlysigning.Some
see him as asuccessortothedepartedEden
Hazard.Theirstyles,though,areverydifferent.Pulisic was now playing under Austrian
Peter Stoger, Dortmund’s boss for six months,
and by 2018 speculation was increasing that
the winger would be leaving the club, either
for England or Bayern Munich. Klopp had
always followed his career, Manchester
United were fully aware of him, but – despite
the apparent turmoil at Stamford Bridge – it
was Chelsea who were consistently keenest
on signing Pulisic. Dortmund, who had lost
Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona in the
summer of 2017 and Aubameyang to Arsenal
six months later, wanted the youngster to
stay another season. Specifically, they wanted
him to play with Jadon Sancho.
The two young stars are equally enthusiastic
about each other. Pulisic reckons Sancho has
“incredible technical ability, with skilful, shifty
movement”. Sancho says, “When Pulisic plays,
everything seems so simple and normal.
I want to be like that, too. He’s only two years
older than me, but from what he has already
achieved with the USA, despite the huge
pressure on him, he is an inspiration for me.”
In 2018-19, under yet another new boss,
Swiss coach Lucien Favre, a brilliant young
Dortmund side again realised their potential
with their early form, winning 12 and drawing
three of their first 15 league games while
Bayern surprisingly floundered. But the
season didn’t work out as Pulisic hoped.
“I had a great start but a few injuries, and it
became frustrating for me,” explains Pulisic,
who ended up playing 90 minutes only once
between Dortmund’s sixth and 26th league
games. He felt that the coach was looking to
the future, a future where he didn’t feature,
but then Dortmund took advantage of
Bayern’spoorstarttotheseason and were
topuntiltheywereovertakeninMarch.A 5-0
defeattoBayerninApril2019,whichPulisic
FourFourTwo September 2019 47“KLInSMAnn LET ME GO TO MY SCHOOL PROM, THE nIGHT
BEFORE I SCORED MY FIRST GOAL FOR THE nATIOnALTEAM”
ANDY MITTEN
is FourFourTwo’s
Editor at Large
and founding editor
of the Manchester
United fanzine
United We Stand(whichendedwitha 1-0defeattoMexicoin
Chicago).Pulisicscoredtwiceinthesemi-final
againstJamaicaandwasnamedtheyoung
playerofthetournament.
“We’vegotsomeveryyoungplayersand
I did my best to help them settle,” he says,
sounding like a senior pro rather than
someone born in 1998.
“I remember players like Geoff Cameron
helping me to settle by inviting me out for
dinner and making me feel part of the team –
or by doing pranks on me, like turning my bed
turned inside out – and I always wanted to be
someone who helped others.”
Yet, despite Pulisic, the USA have badly –
and very publicly – underachieved. They
missed out on the 2018 World Cup in Russia
by finishing fifth in the Hex, the final six-team
CONCACAF qualifying group which they’d won
in 2006, 2010 and 2014. Losing both games
to Costa Rica and drawing in Honduras and
Panama meant that the US entered their final
fixture, away to Trinidad & Tobago, needing at
least a point to guarantee qualification. Pulisic
scored but Trinidad & Tobago, who had taken
three points from their other nine matches,
won 2-1. Due to results elsewhere, the USA
didn’t even reach the fourth-place consolation
prize of a play-off against Australia. It was
a humiliating, almost unimaginable failure.
“I was in tears after the game, when we
realised we wouldn’t be going,” says Pulisic.
“Itwastough. It was, and still is, a dream to
playina World Cup. I wanted it so bad.”
t took the US over a year to name a new
rmanent manager, to Pulisic’s bafflement.
t thetime I struggled to understand why,
t maybe everything happens for a reason,”
says, diplomatically, before adding, “We
vesome very good players.”
Pulisic’s future is bright for club and country
ke.He has already played 25 times for the
A,scoring 10 goals. In the Gold Cup, he
okeda level above any of his team-mates.
bodes well for life in the Premier League.
I can’t wait,” he tells FFT. Likewise, Chelsea
nscan’t wait to see him. And, unlike the
ues’other elfin talents who are loaned out
d seldom seen at the Bridge, this is one
ungplayer they’ve bought to go straight
o thefirst team. He is more than ready.CHRISTIAn
PULISICBelow Taking on
Mexico in this year’s
Gold Cup showpiecey g yBeforehejoinedup withChelsea’s pre-season
inJapan,cuttingshorthisholidaystodoso,
PulisicplayedfortheUSAintheGoldCup,
where he reachedhisfirst internationalfinaly p
satoutinjured,putyetanothertitleallbut
in thehandsoftheBavarians.Pulisicplayed
9 0 minutesineachofthefinalthreegames,
scoringintwoandassistingMarco
Reusfor BVB’sfinal goalof the
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