Christian Pulisic has become the 11th player to leave Chelsea this season as their summer game continues. Credit: Reuters/Craig Brough
Goodbye Captain America is the great footballing talent of the United States, who Chelsea hoped could help take the place of the club's legend and expand the reach and visibility of Roman Abramovich's project in the world's biggest sporting nation.
Eventually, Chelsea will be more closely associated with two US citizens whose names would not be familiar to any football fan in 2019. But it wasn't Christian Pulisic, the US international who completed four years at the club this week. with a move to Milan. Instead, it was Chelsea's new owners in the US, the private equity brothers Todd Boly and Behdad Egbali, who are now charting a course for who knows where in the post-Abramovich years.
Unfortunately for Pulisic, he arrived in the summer when Eden Hazard eventually left for Real Madrid. There have been few farewells quite like Hazard's, with a Europa League win and thanks and best wishes from all the Chelsea fans. No one could compare to Hazard's years at Chelsea, erratic but uplifting in their day. Not even Hazard after May 2019, who is now considered one of the worst signings Real Madrid have ever made.
What is the significance of signing Pulisic for Chelsea? The club hoped the £58m spent on it during the Marina Granovskaya years, agreed in January 2019 ahead of the club's transfer embargo, would yield far more than 26 goals in 145 senior appearances. But on the other hand, playing for Chelsea in the 21st century presents a unique set of challenges that far more players than just Pulisic have been unprepared for.
The American had several big moments, including a perfect hat-trick against Burnley in October of his first season. His best form in four years came arguably later in the season when the post-lockdown season ended with empty stadiums. An injury he suffered in the FA Cup Final in August of that year affected his rhythm. There were other injuries as well.
He was not as confident a media performer as one would expect from American athletes. There was a natural shyness. Last summer, the club responded to a question that it had signed a letter from the US men's national team to Congress demanding tougher gun control laws that promised an interesting response. He has spoken in the past about the depression that hit him when he was sidelined or injured.
As for the most recent season, in which Chelsea had four managers, Pulisic was rarely in the starting XI for any of them, just eight. He scored just one goal in all competitions. However, at the World Cup final for the United States, he looked elated. He was arguably the best player on both sides when the US drew against Gareth Southgate's England team. In this game, you could see why Chelsea thought they had a standard Premier League player in the top four, and maybe Milan will rediscover that potential.
The wait for the big US Premier League star continues. This player has a bonus and with a change in the approval criteria by the governing body, agreed with the Football Association, this country will once again become a major springboard for the Premier League. Pulisic's Croatian heritage meant he had a European Union passport that he used to travel to Germany, and his first club Borussia Dortmund was much easier.
His four years at Chelsea coincided with one one of the most unstable in club life. history, and yet he won the Champions League along the way — the first American to play in the final of the competition. It means something, and in the end it is an achievement that his famous predecessors in the number 10 T-shirt, Hazard and Willian, never achieved.
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