Christian Pulisic is the man who will lead AC Milan into battle against Juventus, shouldering the responsibility of creating goals.
As Quotidiano Sportivo recall, in the United States – where Pulisic hails from – they called Deion Sanders ‘Prime Time’, someone who starred in the NFL and MLB, and became known as the man for the big moments.
‘Neon Deion’ played his best seasons between Atlanta and Dallas, while Christian Pulisic grew up in Philadelphia, where football is a religion (the Eagles won the last Super Bowl), and evidently the examples are different.
Prime-time Puli?
In the metaphorical comparison, the American is a ‘late-night’ man: rarely mentioned, never celebrated enough, yet inexorably at the centre of the good things that happen for the Rossoneri on the field.
Nobody has scored more than him in the last three seasons for Milan, and no one has started so strongly this season. He was deserving of the club’s Player of the Month award for September with goals and two assists in seven games between Serie A and the Coppa Italia so far.
His performance against Napoli was dazzling at times: the spectacular sprint to set up the opener, then the deflected strike to double the lead before the break. Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot’s presence in midfield is rightly praised, because Pulisic is the ‘silent killer’.
With a contract expiring in 2027, but with an option to extend until 2028, his future will be talked about soon, more specifically a renewal. The question now is who will play alongside him on Sunday evening against Juventus.
Santiage Gimenez hasn’t convinced anyone yet, but he seems to be the first choice. Christopher Nkunku has shown some signs of his talent and can add directness to Pulisic’s vision. Rafael Leao is the designated partner for the future, but he’s still far from being 100%.
Er, no. Pulisic was born and grew up in Hershey Pennsylvania, which is 95 miles or 152 km away from Philadelphia, a bit longer than the distance from Milan to Turin (142km).
Culturally, Hershey is a world apart from the densely populated and crime ridden big city of Philadelphia.
It is still fairly small and pastoral, originally being the company city founded by Milton Hershey for his Chocolate company, and is still surrounded by the dairy farms that produce the milk for the milk chocolate in Hershey’s Chocolate.
Hershey’s Chocolate of course is one of Pulisic’s corporate sponsors.
So to summarize, this article has got it all wrong about Pulisic.
Pulisic is a small town guy from a small town that makes chocolate as its main business.
He’s not a big city guy and “Prime Time” doesn’t come close to his persona.