Is Christian Pulisic's career season for AC Milan the USMNT star's new normal?
It says plenty about the speed with which Christian Pulisic is evolving into a legitimate star for one of the world's most decorated clubs that the sight of the American among AC Milan's substitutes for Tuesday's 2-0 loss to Napoli was shocking.
Pulisic, it turned out, had the flu. That helps explain why the U.S. men's national team headliner was unable to help the Rossoneri claw their way back into the game after he came on in the second half. He had been almost unstoppable before that.
Pulisic had a goal or an assist (or both) in each of Milan's seven Serie A matches before Tuesday. He's scored twice in three UEFA Champions League appearances for the seven-time European titlist. And he continues to pace the USMNT, with a squad-leading five goal contributions this year.
"He's like our best attacking player right now," Yunus Musah said of his Milan and USMNT teammate earlier this month. "He's flying."
Sacha Kljestan on where Christian Pulisic ranks among the world's best | SOTU
Pulisic is on pace to dwarf his numbers from 2023-24, when he scored a career-best 15 goals across all competitions. This season, he's on track for 20 in Serie A alone.
"I'm loving Italy," Pulisic said during a recent appearance on the Bob Does Sports YouTube channel. "It has changed my career around."
There's no doubt that Pulisic is in the form of his life right now, at the absolute height of his considerable powers. The question is: Is it merely a hot streak, or is this Christian Pulisic's new normal?
Until moving to Milan in the summer of 2023, the main question concerned no his ability, but rather his durability.
Pulisic was just 20 when he arrived in the Premier League to play for Chelsea. He scored 11 goals in his first season in Stamford Bridge and won the Champions League to cap his second, but his four years in London were plagued by injuries that prevented him from sustaining any kind of normal rhythm.
"When you're constantly in and out of the lineup, it can be hard," Pulisic, who in his 2022 book My Journey So Far wrote candidly about his mental health struggles during this time in England, told FOX Sports in an interview in March. "Your body isn't prepared for that constant wear, so then when you come in and give a high-intensity performance, it can definitely be a problem."
Playing week-in, week-out in a place that values him has made all the difference mentally. The consistent playing time has actually helped keep Pulisic physically healthy over the last year-plus, too. He logged 3,613 minutes for the club last season — more than tripling his total from his final 12 months at Chelsea — and projects to surpass that in 2024-25.
"Your body just kind of gets accustomed to it," Pulisic said, "Which has been really helpful."
The extra muscle that Pulisic has packed onto his thin frame over the last two years has also boosted his confidence. Ahead of the national team's friendly last month in Austin, Texas against Panama — Pulisic set up Musah's game winner against Los Canaleros in new coach Mauricio Pochettino's debut — one reporter joked that Pulisic seems an inch or two taller than he did a couple years ago.
Maybe he's just standing taller. Pulisic, who turned 26 last month, has matured as much off the field as he has on it. Once painfully shy when talking to the media, he's more comfortable with the responsibilities that accompany the status of being perhaps the best American soccer player of all time. A little bit, anyway.
"I still struggle with that stuff, I guess," he said in Austin when asked about that part of his job. "I think it's important for me to step out of my comfort zone a little bit."
Like by speaking Italian not just to coaches and teammates, as he could by the end of his first season with the Rossoneri, but in live post-match television interviews, as he has of late, including following the "Olimpico" goal he scored directly from a corner kick in a 3-1 Champions League win over Club Brugge on Oct. 22.
As long as Pulisic stays healthy, there's no reason why there can't be many more moments like that. He's just entering his prime. But even if Pulisic's blistering current form is simply his new normal, that doesn't mean he still can't improve.
Pochettino, for one, thinks he can. With a World Cup on home soil less than two years from now, the Argentine knows that Pulisic has the opportunity to transcend his sport and become a household name in the American mainstream. Pochettino, who has managed the likes of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Cole Palmer and Harry Kane, took the USMNT job believing that he can help the country's talisman reach an even higher level.
"For us, it's not enough, [whether] it's Pulisic or a different player," Pochettino said. "We need to help them to be better and better."
For the opposing defenses already struggling to contain this version of Pulisic, the thought is downright scary.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. A staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he has covered United States men's and women's national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.
