Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze will hope to combine and lead AC Milan to success next season, but they did once meet as opponents some time ago.
La Gazzetta dello Sport recall a game that took place on 10 October 2015, when Pulisic was 17 years old and wore the No.10 of the United States, while Chukwueze was among the youngest among the Nigeria team under Emmanuel Amunike.
It was an U17 World Cup match played in Chile and it was the first match in a group completed by Chile and Croatia. Pulisic played as a starter, Chukwueze came on about ten minutes from the end and Nigeria won 2-0 with goals from Osimhen and Chukwudi Agor.
The two never crossed paths again. Pulisic continued his career at Borussia Dortmund while Chukwueze moved to Villarreal, the team that bought him for €500k and resold him to Milan in a deal worth €28m.
Samu is the one-on-one man who is good at dribbling and left footed like Arjen Robben, while Christian is the frontman of the American national team and can play in a number of different positions.
The duo will initially compete for a starting spot on the right, with the Nigerian favoured by virtue of the fact the American could take up other positions. However, another season of potentially 50 games beckons, so each will have time and space to show off.
We already had one left footed RW called Samu (Castillejo) …. hopefully Chukwueze proves more effective than the spaniard
Samu, like Honda, Messias, Saelemaekers, and Luka Romero (for now) never really had the ability or personality to beat a man or cause any kind of serious penetration with their movement. Chukwueze, like Leao, lives to outspeed the opponent and I’m very optimistic about his upcoming contribution. Can’t wait to see him just leave defenders trailing in his wake.