Christian Pulisic’s words after the USA’s win over Senegal raised some eyebrows, but in the meantime AC Milan are concocting a plan to keep him.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report, it hasn’t been a positive recent period for Pulisic. He went five months without a goal, missed out on the Champions League after Milan’s late-season collapse, and had to hand the USMNT armband over to Tim Ream just before the World Cup.
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Then, in the 20th minute of the friendly between the USA and Senegal, an event that could spell the end of the curse happened. Ricardo Pepi passed it to Pulisic, who dribbled around the goalkeeper and slotted it in. His celebration – an outpouring of emotion – said everything.
Words and deeds
On the eve of the friendly at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Pulisic admitted his recent struggles at Milan, more or less saying ‘I could have done better’. After his goal against Senegal, however, the American striker changed his stance a bit.
“I’ve actually played really well in the last few months, but it seems like everyone only cares about the goals. So I hope people stop talking about it now,” he said. In short, Pulisic doesn’t think a lot of the criticism was warranted.
He scored eight goals in the first half of the season, despite a few minor physical issues, before failing to net from December 28 onwards. Goals aside, Pulisic’s decline coincided with that of the team, who squandered their entire advantage built up over two-thirds of the season to finish fifth in the end.
Pulisic has left behind the disappointment of Italy and is now focused on the World Cup, with the United States hosting the tournament. Once his international adventure is over and he’s rested on vacation, Captain America will have to refocus on Milan.
Despite the rumours of recent weeks, Gerry Cardinale is still counting on him and has no intention of letting him go. He’s the quintessential American face of Milan. Before the crisis, Pulisic had been the best player at the club in 2026, so much so that he expected a big new contract.
In fact, the former Chelsea man wanted his pay doubling from €4m to €8m net per year. His current contract expires in 2027, but with an option for an additional year. A renewal hasn’t been finalised yet, but Cardinale wants one and will hold discussions himself with the player before 2026-27.
If Pulisic stays, Milan should seriously consider getting Ricardo Pepi, currently at PSV.
The guy is a proven scorer, has great mobility, able to play as a winger, and as a striker, ranges all over, going wide and dropping deep, as well as being able to do hold up play.
Most of all, there’s this great instinctive partnership that he’s developed with Pulisic for the last five years on the USMNT.
Besides providing the assist for Pulisic on his goal, Pepi also provided the hockey assist that got Pulisic the assist on the first USMNT goal (scored by Serginho Dest)
Pepi almost got transferred to Fulham for €40 million in the middle of last season, so he won’t be cheap, but he would be a definitive improvement on both Jimenez and Fullkrug
It’s amazing how good Pulisic is when played in proper formation and tactics. Allegri ruined Milan shifting to 5-3-2. He refused to change so it became so easy for other teams to build a strategy that stifles the 2 CF.