1 hour ago
25
Christian Pulisic is one of the first names on the team sheet for Massimiliano Allegri’s AC Milan, and he will rely on him in Sunday’s derby too.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recall, Pulisic passed through Dortmund and London but he made his fortune in Italy. With Milan he has racked up 109 games, 38 goals and 25 assists. The American dream has become red and black, and he doesn’t want to wake up soon.
Renewal-worthy numbers
Pulisic and Milan will soon return to negotiate the extension of the contract that currently binds the parties together until the summer of 2027.
The forward struggled to establish himself in major European football: during his years in Germany, he had never scored more than four goals in the Bundesliga. At Chelsea, who paid €64m to sign him, he got nine goals and six assists in his first Premier League season.
Then, however, also due to a couple of injuries, Pulisic’s London story was much more gloomy. The suitcase he opened in Milan was loaded with goals: 15 in his first season with the Rossoneri, 17 in total last season (when he was the team’s top scorer), and already six in 2025-26.
Pulisic – who has since moved from the right side of the pitch to the centre – is still the Milan player with the most goals to his name. It’s fair to say that for the past 15 months, Christian has been the team’s true top scorer. Two of his goals have come in his last three matches against Inter, too.
A new version
The USA international has been at Milan since the summer of 2023, acquired from Chelsea for €20m. Pulisic has found the dimension and recognition he was seeking: second-top scorer in the league at present, a ranking without a runaway leader.
Pulisic trails Orsolini and Calhanoglu who have five goals. Had he not missed his penalty at Juventus, he would also have been at the top. In Milan, he has also discovered a new version of himself: from a shy and reserved boy, he has become a vocal leader as well as a technical leader.
With him, quality is guaranteed: he integrates perfectly with Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot, not coincidentally the teammates with whom he interacts most closely on the pitch. The numbers prove it: with Modric, Chris, and Rabiot starting at the same time, Milan’s points average is 2.6.
Before his injury, Pulisic stepped up to ensure Rafael Leao’s absence wasn’t crippling. The Portuguese is another player who was sidelined at the start of the season, while a typical number nine did not arrive from the market for Pulisic to play off.
For the first time in the derby, Chris and Rafa will be together. Of the eight total goals the two have scored in Serie A, not a single one has been scored with both players on the pitch. The pairing Allegri envisioned in the summer will only make their league debuts at the end of November.
Affinities
The final ‘training session’ in Parma was a brief one, where the pair’s cohesion immediately emerged: Leao’s back-heeled flick and Pulisic’s miss. It was a clear sign of a lack of fitness and perhaps mental clarity, which is understandable given he had been out since the October break.
Captain America has other goals under his belt (32 in 82 games for the USA), but at the moment he can’t be considered a true hero of both worlds. Seen from across the pond, the picture changes, and Pulisic is considered (by some critics) to be a captain who isn’t available enough.
He was guilty of first declining an invitation to participate in the summer Gold Cup, the equivalent of the European Championship, and then of pushing Milan ahead in negotiations with the federation to avoid the friendlies in mid-November.
It is a move that US supporters didn’t appreciate, but is completely understandable: Pulisic had been knocked out in the friendly between the United States and Australia and was subsequently forced to miss four league matches.
In the choice of coach Pochettino, with whom relations are not exactly relaxed, common sense prevailed. Pulisic may not be a prophet in his homeland, but he is at Milan: it could be his home until 2030. Renewal talks will resume soon.
English (US) ·