Like it or not, Christian Pulisic has no choice now but to be the face of American soccer. Bearing that label is fine with Pulisic, who, despite being just 19, suddenly is a mentor on the youthful United States men’s national team.
After the US team failed to qualify for this summer’s World Cup in Russia, the budding soccer star is entering a transition period in his career and life. The pressure comes from all sides: his mom’s worries about his tattoos extending past his left arm (“They are very addicting,” he said) to whether he’s staying with Borussia Dortmund, one of Germany’s top clubs, where he’s racked up 70 appearances since he was 16.
Back on US soil, Pulisic returns to the national team for the first time — a Monday night friendly match against Bolivia — since that qualifying disaster in his backyard of Chester, Pa., a 2-1 loss to Trinidad & Tobago that sealed the US team’s fate. At an unveiling of his new Nike cleats in partnership with the Hershey Company, his hometown, Pulisic spoke to The Post in midtown Manhattan about his eye-opening Players Tribune piece, Germany and Team USA’s prospects moving forward.
Q: Since writing your essay for the Players Tribune, in which you laid out your blueprint to fix American soccer, has the US system improved in your eyes?
A: I think we have a long way to go. As I wrote there in [the Players Tribune] piece, there’s so many things that we’re going to continue to learn from. Looking around at other examples in Europe and seeing what’s going on, I think it’s cool. What’s interesting is what we’re doing now is calling in a lot of young players into camp. I think it’s great, it’s helping guys gain experience and confidence and just learn from some more experienced players. I’m really excited to go there and help them even more and share what I know and learn even more.
I think it’s a good building year for us and I think we’re looking good moving forward.
Q: If the United States had qualified for Russia, would the long-awaited youth movement have happened after the World Cup?
A: I think we would be very focused on the team that we would be putting in the World Cup. That’s normal. But after that, it’s not like we would have, like, not even thought about not developing a new team in the future and kept moving forward, because I think people see that we still have a long way to go in [the] sport. Qualifying was not easy in any way. Obviously, yeah — things would’ve been different, but I don’t think, in the end, we would’ve had to have the same goals.
Q: You were critical of Major League Soccer’s player development in your essay for the Players Tribune, in which you said young players were only being “rostered” instead of earning playing time. With the MLS season nearly a third of the way done, what’s been your outlook on the situation this year?
A: It’s hard to me not to see younger players given opportunities. I went to a huge club in Germany and I was always given an opportunity. They trusted me — they just gave me that chance to show them in big games. They didn’t care. It was so amazing the way that I was able to develop. I wouldn’t have been given that chance maybe in another environment. To me, it’s just the most important thing. I think the nation, the US, is growing a lot.
Q: What does former US coach Jurgen Klinsmann mean to you?
A: He called me up at a young age because he saw what I had been doing in Germany at Dortmund and he respected that. I respect him so much because he also gave me an opportunity. He brought me in — first time was Copa America — and he brought me along slowly. He didn’t throw me in the lineup right away … but he trusted me to put me on the roster, brought me in [and] gave me minutes time by time. As he felt the time was right, he started to start me and I think the way he did it was perfect. I’m so thankful for what he did to my career, especially for the US.
Q: Should Klinsmann (who was fired in November 2016) have finished the qualifying cycle or did a move need to happen?
A: It was tough. Obviously, with a bad start in the Hex (CONCACAF World Cup qualification) — that’s how things go in professional sports sometimes. I’m not saying it had to happen or if it was right — it was something that didn’t shock people.
Q: Are you ready to be the face of American soccer?
A: I’m ready for anything that comes at me now. People put that label on me — whatever. That’s not how I see it at all. I continue to play and be a team player and do whatever I can for my team, whatever that might be, to take on the next challenge.
For me, I do feel some sort of responsibility. I feel that I kind of let us down, almost. Maybe the team let the country down — we wanted to be in that World Cup so badly. I don’t want people to think it didn’t mean that much to us, because it meant the absolute world to me and the other guys. I feel responsibility to be part of this team as we grow to help us develop and be there for all the guys, especially the younger guys, and put us in that next World Cup.