ESPN – Chelsea have signed Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund for €64 million (£57.6m, $73.1m) and have loaned the United States international back to the Bundesliga club ahead of him moving to the Premier League in the summer.
ESPN FC reported on Saturday that Chelsea made a bid of more than £50m for Pulisic, who had been linked with Manchester United, Liverpool and Bayern Munich, among others, in an effort to get the deal completed ahead of their rivals.
Pulisic will see out the 2018-19 season with Dortmund, who lead the Bundesliga by six points, and could move to Chelsea as a title winner.
It looks like Chelsea FC just won the competition for everyone in America looking for a Premier League team to root for with football season coming to a close.
Christian Pulisic just became the 45th American to sign to the Premier League and the third most expensive player in Chelsea history. All this from a kid from Hershey Town, USA.
If you’re not familiar with Christian Pulisic, Vice did a short documentary about him a couple of years ago and the US Men’s National Team did another short documentary on him last summer that are both well produced.
Christian has the best chance of any American ever of being an actual player that people around the world care about. There was Tim Howard a couple years ago but most of the buzz was around the World Cup where he played out of his mind and single-handedly got the US past the group stage. Once he went back to Everton, the buzz died down on a mainstream level.
With the Premier League being as popular as it’s ever been in the US, Pulisic has a chance to become a household name in the States, and around the world, by the time the 2022 World Cup rolls around.
I don’t know enough about soccer to tell you how much he’s going to play for Chelsea over the next couple years but I don’t imagine paying $73 million just to sign a player and having him sit on the bench is considered a winning strategy in the Premier League.
Is he going to be the Patrick Maholmes of Chelsea where he starts right away and balls the fuck out?
Will he be like Lamar Jackson where he sits on the bench most of his first season, then capitalizes on an opportunity to start and doesn’t relinquish the starting position?
Will he be like Alex Smith and break his leg like Joe Theisman halfway through a promising season?
Will he be complete trash?
Only time will tell.
Whatever happens with Christian in the Premier League, though, hopefully the US will at least make the 2022 World Cup. Fingers crossed.
P.S. Christian’s next game with Borussia Dortmund is Monday, Jan. 7, at 10:00 am.
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