Christian Pulisic is officially an AC Milan player with an announcement expected today to confirm his signing, according to a report.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes that Pulisic officially became a Milan player at around 19:00 CEST yesterday when he signed a contract worth €4m net per year until 2027, before going outside to see the fans for photos and autographs.
In about 10 days, fans from his home country the USA will be able to admire him live in the stadiums of California and Nevada, where Pulisic and Milan will play friendly matches against Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona.
Pulisic is the most popular American footballer. On social media – including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tik Tok – the former Chelsea player has more followers than all those of the other US footballers of the moment combined.
He has over 13 million followers, then there is the likes of Dest (5.4m), McKennie (2.1m), Weah and Reyna (600k). We are at the next level of the Milan-USA connection created by Gerry Cardinale and RedBird Capital, owner of the Rossoneri.
Milan have commercial synergies with the baseball New York Yankees, Randy Levine (president of the historic baseball franchise) is on the board, there is a collaboration with the algorithm guru Billy Beane and now USA influence on the field too.
From a commercial point of view, the Pulisic operation is one with enormous potential. The 24-year-old is trendy in the US because he is talented but also because he played for prestigious clubs in Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea and now Milan.
He made his debut in the national team when he was not yet 18 and as a teenager he scored his first goal, a right-footed shot at the near post after a driving run in a 4-0 victory over Bolivia in a friendly.
At the age of 20 he wore the captain’s armband for the first time – another record for the USA – in a friendly loss against Italy. Such a great talent that he soon translated into popularity.
Time Magazine in 2017 included him in the list of the most influential teenagers in the world, while GQ named him in the Top 10 of the future greatest athletes of all time together with people like gymnast Simone Biles.
PUMA, who make Milan’s kits, chose to sponsor Pulisic because of the charitable projects he has carried out too. However, this is not just a move that makes sense from a marketing standpoint.
Milan have decided to bet on Pulisic to raise the technical level of the squad with his dribbling and goals, meaning that Rafael Leao will hopefully no longer be the only source of creativity.
He landed yesterday morning at Malpensa, and Pulisic immediately said he was enthusiastic: “I’m happy to be here, Milan is a historic and legendary club. We will try to win some trophies.”
He will take the No.11 shirt, vacated by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with the hopes of becoming a new leader of the attacking department and repaying Milan’s faith.
Good luck. Try to stay away from injury and with his qualities, goals and assists will follow.
Ha has potential to be the signing of the season, if he can fulfill his potential and free from injury.
I am not excited, Pulisic not that good at dribbling or scoring , he average at best !!!
Let’s just admit Captain America was signed as a marketing mascot by Lord Cardinale.
It’s up to him to prove doubters wrong that he can still play football.
He can 100% play, but he can’t stay fit. His issue since Dortmund
Not sure why folks hate this signing. I’m sure he’s better than Diaz/Messias – I’m all for the mascot thing too. This means an increase in fan base, merchandise, marketability, etc, which turns into profit that can be reinvested. Unfortunately there’s two parts to football: on field and off field results. We should be happy that we are aiming towards sustainability otherwise we’d be in la merda like inter.
I am not happy because he was described as injury prone when Chelsea signed him, and that is the only thing he managed to prove at Chelsea. He is talented but when you still talk about a 24 y/o player like a talent, you know something is wrong…
Well Messias has outperformed him the last 3 years so yea let’s hope he becomes better than the Messiah
Superstar lol. If we’re looking for clicks we should sign Pogba