EXCLUSIVE: The American star spoke to GOAL about life, learnings and the USMNT ahead of this summer's tournament
"I appreciate the question, to be honest."
Christian Pulisic breaks into a smile. He could, truthfully, do without 99 percent of the questions he answers on a daily basis. He is a private person by nature, but he's spent the entirety of his adult life being American soccer's most famous figure. From the age of 16, Pulisic has lived a very public life in front of a country desperate for him to succeed. It's a big weight, one that Pulisic has now grown up with on his path towards and through superstardom. Shouldering that for anyone would be difficult; doing so as someone that tends to be more reserved is much, much harder.
Pulisic's life, of course, is flooded with questions. They've become harder to answer over the last few years. As things went downhill at Chelsea, for example, they also became somewhat repetitive.
"What can you do to fix this?" "What's going wrong?" "What must change to make sure this doesn't drag on even further?"
He answered those and thousands of others, both with his voice and with his play for AC Milan this year. But, on this day, Pulisic isn't here to answer those questions. He's hardly even talking about soccer. No, this is all about a question significantly more personal to him, one that he wishes he was asked more often.
"How are you?"
"When you start doing interviews all the time you get similar questions," Pulisic tells GOAL. "You can kind of go into that interview mode. I think I just kind of give the same old boring answers, but I think it's important to ask questions and it's important to get people, I don't know, talking about things that actually are interesting to them.
"My whole life is soccer all the time, and that's all people want to know about. It's normal, I get that's what you want to ask about. That's what's happening. That's what that's what we're known for. I guess I'm a pretty private person, so I wouldn't say that I want people to know more about me like, say Tyler [Adams] and Weston [McKennie] obviously do. I'm OK with people not knowing anything about me, but that doesn't mean that it's not good to ask sometimes about how other people are."
Ahead of the USMNT's quest for success at Copa America on home soil, GOAL sat down with Pulisic to discuss his life-changing season, the upcoming tournament, a potential legacy moment and, most importantly, how he's doing.
Getty'Maybe the best I've ever been'
For much of the last few years, the outside world has equated Pulisic's happiness with his soccer career. In some aspects, it's a fair reflection of his life. It is all a bit easier when things are going well at work, after all, whether you're a teacher, accountant or, in Pulisic's case, the most famous American soccer player on the planet.
It's not all there is to life, though. As a professional athlete an ocean away from home, there are so many aspects that often go overlooked. Culture, family, friends… most of Pulisic's life does take place outside of soccer.
There's no denying that this past year has been special, though. Pulisic's move to Milan has worked wonders, on and off the field.
On it, Pulisic proved his doubters wrong throughout the season, scoring 15 goals while providing nine assists in all competitions. Off it, he's found a new home in Milan with one of the world's biggest clubs, one which offers him a new life experience in Italy.
Pulisic is in a good place. Things are going his way at the moment.
"From a soccer standpoint, everyone looks and, yeah, individually pretty good season," he begins, "but I will say, yeah, away from the game I'm doing really well, maybe the best I've ever been. I'm feeling like I'm in a good place. I'm excited to be back in the States for a bit. I've been seeing a lot of family and friends and just enjoying time in the country."
AdvertisementGettyChanging perspectives
For the first time in several years, Pulisic heads into a summer with his head held somewhat high. His final years at Chelsea had weighed on him.
The playing aspect of it was clear to see. Under several managers at Stamford Bridge, Pulisic could never quite build moment. Injuries, bad luck, coaching decisions – it seemed like so much went against him at all the wrong times.
So, every time he joined up with the USMNT, the questions would come. How nice was it to be back with the USMNT? Could the national team pull him out of Chelsea misery? What kind of momentum could he build before the long trip back to London?
There are no questions like that this summer. For the first time in years, Pulisic heads into a major tournament in good form. It's not lost on him, either. This summer, there's no overthinking or second-guessing; Pulisic knows he's ready.
"Depending on how your season goes, you always – and I learned to improve on this – but you can put too much of your emotion on that," he says. "Can I enjoy myself this summer? Should I feel good going into it or is it just like, 'It was a failure and you need to do this'?
"I think it's important, no matter what happens, to just save yourself and put the game aside and go home with a good attitude and just try to relax and rest, see the people that you love."
GettyPlaying with your boys
Weston McKennie tells a story about his first day with U.S. Soccer’s Under-17 Residency Program. It was his first day in Florida and players packed into busses. McKennie found his seat and turned to the player next to him, who made sure to introduce himself.
"Hi, I'm Christian Pulisic."
All these years later, five members of that residency program have represented the USMNT at a World Cup: Pulisic, McKennie, Tyler Adams, Haji Wright and Luca de la Torre. It's one of the things that makes this U.S. group so special: they have quite literally grown up together.
"It's incredible, right?," Pulisic says. "I've talked about just how close I am with this team. It's stories like that that just show that. Obviously, I've known Weston for so long and Tyler as well and we've just become like brothers.
"Coming into every camp, it just feels normal. It's nice playing with guys like that. They have your back and you have their back always. We know when it's time to get serious but just having these guys around to mess around with, just your boys, it's pretty cool."
Pulisic is, of course, the face of American soccer, the most famous of the bunch. For years, though, he's been able to lean on his longtime friends as part of the group's pursuit of redefining American soccer. None of them feel like they have to do it alone because they have each other – and they always have.
It's made the difficult moments a bit easier. After missing out on the 2018 World Cup, Pulisic was soon joined by a new generation of USMNT stars led by his longtime friends. That group went on to qualify for the 2022 tournament and will almost certainly be the leaders of the team looking to change the course of history in 2026.
It's a tough task, for sure, but one made easier by knowing that they're doing it together.
"It's super important," he says. "It's great. We go through things and we're always talking to each other regularly throughout the season and of course when here. There's really nothing better. "
An iconic moment ruined, but more on the way?
Pulisic's goal against Iran could have been, and should have been, truly iconic.
It was his "Landon Donovan against Algeria" goal, the one that sent the U.S. into the knockout round of the 2022 World Cup. For decades, posters of Pulisic celebrating that goal would have been in every American soccer fan's bedroom. It should have been a defining moment.
Everyone knows what really happened. That celebration never came. As his teammates reveled in the moment, Pulisic was down injured, unable to stand. He never got the chance to pump his fists in the air or snarl at the camera. He never got the opportunity to be uplifted by his teammates or point towards the American fans in attendance. Instead, all he could do is lay there as what should have been a career-defining photo instead turned into reason to panic for the USMNT.
For American fans watching either at home or in Qatar, it was one of the defining moments of the 2022 World Cup: the long ball from McKennie, the header down from Sergino Dest, the gutsy finish by Pulisic, who truly sacrificed himself for the team. It's a moment many fans will remember for a long time.
But how does Pulisic remember it? How does he feel about it all? Does he view that signature moment as a defining goal or a moment diminished by an injury that took away his chance to celebrate?
In truth, he doesn't think about it much. He's happy he scored. He is, of course, unhappy with what happened after. In his dreams, that goal, that moment, would have been much different, but that's not what Pulisic got on that night in Doha.
"I would say that it's true, I guess, that it would have been, and it was, a huge moment," Pulisic says. "Normally it would have been – I don't know what I would have done – but I would have been excited. I would have had a pretty cool celebration with the team. You could see the team wanted to run over and celebrate, but it was like, I just didn't have that.
"It's funny, but sometimes, things work out that way. I wouldn't have changed it for the world. So the way it happens, that's how it happened. Unfortunately, I just had to celebrate that one laying in the goal.
"I hope to have many big moments. It's not like I feel like 'Oh, I need that one moment, that iconic celebration'. That's not how I think. I want to go in and I want to win these tournaments. At the end of the day, people will talk about that and that's what they'll remember."