Christian Pulisic of AC Milan

New markets and representation: Why Pulisic could begin a Milan love affair in the USA

New signings are always a cause for excitement and AC Milan signing a player of Christian Pulisic’s calibre is definitely a cause for celebration.

The Hershey, Pennsylvania native, who also captains the US Men’s Soccer Team, has traded in the Blues of Chelsea for the Rossonero of Milan.

His signing is akin to dropping an American-shaped hydrogen bomb into the Mediterranean sea. And like the reverberations of that fusion blast, this is a signing with the potential to make large waves and change the environment around it.

Pulisic is only 24-years-old but it feels like he’s much older. This is probably because he’s been playing top-flight football since the age of 17, when he first made his debut for Borussia Dortmund back in 2016.

Three years later, he moved to Chelsea for a transfer fee worth $73m (£57.6m), which made him the most expensive North American player in history. Pulisic would make history in other ways, including becoming the first US player to win the Champions League with the Blues in 2021.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for him at Chelsea. Hence why he agreed to move to Milan. Milan represents a second chance for him. A lot will be riding on this move and the stakes will be high not only for Pulisic himself but for the country he comes from. 

And on those Bunyanesque shoulders are the weights and expectations of 331.9 million people.  The hope is that Christian will get more playing time at Milan and develop as a player, and that his domestic play will help him win on the international stage with the US’ team.

With that in mind, it is quite fitting that he will begin his redemption arc in the Land of the Papacy and Christ’s crucifixion. He is also the third American to sign for this team, after Oguchi Onyewu and Celeste Boureille (for the Women’s team).

Soccer is one of the fastest growing sports in America. There are an estimated total of 24,472,778 people who play soccer at some level in this country. It is currently the fourth most popular sport in the country, right after baseball.

As an example, my hometown of San Diego has established itself as one of the youth soccer hotbeds in the US. On the adult side of things, the San Diego Wave, the city’s top-flight women’s football team, is currently the town’s second main sports attraction, right after their baseball team, the San Diego Padres.

The Wave also had a surprisingly good debut season in 2022. The team surpassed a lot of expectations and broke a few records in the process, including three for attendance, and being the first-ever expansion team to make the NWSL’s playoffs.

The team is also captained by Alex Morgan, who also happens to be the most popular women’s soccer player in the entire world. And like Pulisic, she too, captains a US Soccer Team, and that women’s team has four World Cups to their name.

The success of the Wave helped pave the way for San Diego to get another professional soccer team. Two years from now, the city’s eponymously named MLS team will make their debut. 

San Diego is a beaten down sports town that is more used to our teams failing or leaving us. Our idyllic beaches tend to double as Plutonian shores. One of those former teams was the Chargers, who left to move back to Los Angeles.

It felt like a betrayal after everything that was done for them, and after that football team left us, it has been the two fútbol teams that have brought back hope to a town shrouded in the bleakness of disappointment and failure. And who knows? Maybe a few of these team’s fans will end up becoming Milan supporters.

Americans are usually quite visible in popular media thanks to pop culture being one of the country’s main exports. However, they aren’t visible everywhere, and that includes European Football.

Having an American at the team will help garner and maintain Stateside fans of the team. After all, representation is important. There is nothing like the feeling that one gets when they see themselves represented.

Indeed, the player is already having quite the impact on the team, as his presence has led to a 266% increase in store sales, with 43% of those buyers being from the States. Pulisic’s kits represent 45% of all jerseys sold, which means that he is responsible for nearly half the club’s sales.

Merchandising isn’t the only place where the impact of Pulisic’s signing can be felt. It can also be felt on social media. The day after Pulisic’s announcement, Milan’s Instagram account gained +14,288 followers.

Americans are a loyal lot and we’re willing to spend a lot of money on our obsessions. Perhaps Milan will now fall under this category for some of the soccer fans in this country. This is why the club’s owners, who just happen to be Americans themselves, pushed to bring him to the team.

Milan is special to me in more ways than one. They were, after all, the team that got me into football, as I fell in love with them after watching them win the Champions League in 2007. Supporting them, though, hasn’t always been easy.

At times, it’s been a pretty rough and rocky journey. However, this team has gotten me through some of the darkest moments in my life, including the death of my father in 2015.

I remember watching highlights of Milan’s past glories to help numb the pain and complicated feelings I felt inside after his death.

Just as Milan were enduring the darkness of their banter era, they managed to bring me light in one of the most difficult periods of my life. Without them, I probably wouldn’t have gotten through this.

Pulisic’s story has a lot of similarities to my own story. We’re both the children of immigrants who fled oppressive regimes to build a new life in America.

Pulisic’s grandfather fled Yugoslavia and moved to New York before his son, Mark (Christian’s father), moved to Pennsylvania. My own family were refugees who fled Laos in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and resettled in the United States. They then moved to San Diego to begin a new life.

Up until this point, the Rossoneri haven’t made deep inroads in America. Their impact on the soccer landscape, however, has manifested in different ways. One of them was Becky Sauerbrunn, the USWNT defender who idolised Paolo Maldini and modelled her game after him.

Through watching tapes of Maldini and emulating his style of play, Sauerbrunn was able to help her team win the 2015 and 2019 Women’s World Cups.

Sauerbrunn will, unfortunately, miss the 2023 tournament, but there are others who will step up to fill that void, most notably Naomi Girma, who just happens to play for the San Diego Wave.

If we’re being honest though, Sauerbrunn was an outlier in this country. Up until this point, there were a lot of Americans that hadn’t heard of the club.

This is mainly due to Serie A not being as popular as other football leagues in the US, due to a variety of factors. I met one of them back in Atlanta in 2018. Her name was Rosie, and she revealed that she’s a fan of a few teams, including two Premier League ones, and Atlanta United. She hadn’t, however, heard of AC Milan.

There are many people who are just like Rosie in this country. Now, with Captain America on the team, the hope is that I’ll no longer have to explain who they are to people here. 

And just as Pulisic has joined the Rossoneri, Lionel Messi has officially joined Inter Miami. Having one of the greatest players of all time join the MLS is a stratospheric move that will help soccer grow in this country. Perhaps they’ll also help cement the sport in both the American landscape and mindset as well. 

The Rossoneri will soon be touring the US as they’ll be participating in the Soccer Champions Tour of 2023. This friendly tournament will see the team take the field on July 23rd at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena against Real Madrid.

It will be a prestigious friendly between two of the most decorated clubs in the world, and just two hours away from my hometown. They’ll then take on Juventus at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles, and play against Barcelona in Las Vegas on August 1.

I’ll be watching all three of these games, 504 miles away from San Diego in my current, Northern California residence, and 5,869 miles away from Milan.

But I’ll feel a lot closer to the team, knowing that – between Pulisic and Tijjani Reijnders (who has Southeast Asian heritage, just like I do) – there’s gonna be a few people like me on my favorite team.

Tags AC Milan Christian Pulisic

12 Comments

  1. He’s from Penn and he didn’t like the London weather, but he was raised for it haha

    Hopefully the sun of Lombardy will give him strength like Clark Kent. He’s already a good commercial joint, I bet he will have his own brand within Milan like Théo, but he seems like a good guy too.

    1. Must have been very painful for you to type anything remotely positive. Even as something as passive aggressive as this. Being from somewhere doesn’t mean you have to love the weather from there.

      1. Alright my attempt at humour was bad, I see. I wish nothing but the best for our players and for you my dear Giancarlo.

        1. We should wish best of luck for all players but USA add nothing in commercial point of view, they follow less football than even Asian countries

          1. I was actually quite surprised when I lived there in 2017, my American friends were all playing FIFA and talking to me about Neymar. I went to Orlando City – NYRB (I watched Kakà and Nocerino) and the big stadium was crowded with fans wearing the colors of the team. Last year in NYC, some kids asked me who is the best between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo when they found out I was European.

            I think this article evidences the recent interest of Americans for the sport, so it’s a huge for opportunity to develop a brand there and a good opportunity for the US to develop their national and domestic teams.

          2. You are uninformed when you say “USA add nothing in terms of commercial point of view,”….” In terms of finances and merchandise, AC Milan’s team store sales have rocketed a whopping 266% in sales overnight. In fact, ‘Captain America’s’ influence is so huge that the club’s US customer base – usually around 9% of their overall sales – increased to 43% 23 hours after his move from Chelsea, with 90% of all customised Pulisic jerseys being sold by customers in the United States.” This according to Joe Pompliano.

          3. Wow, you know nothing about the financial power of the USA market.
            The last deal that the English Premier League signed with NBC Sports was for $2.7 billion for 6 years, or $450 million a year for broadcast EPL soccer rights in the USA. This was DOUBLE the amount they had to pay in their previous TV contract with the EPL.
            The English FA Cup TV rights in the USA are held by ESPN, which pays $24.5 million a year.
            In contrast, CBS Sports pays only a paltry $75 million a year for BOTH Serie A and Coppa Italia rights.
            So yeah, the American market for soccer, with American players it can identify with is HUGE.
            It’s a major reason that the EPLhas been able to outbid other leagues for the top players

      2. I often disagree with bartholomeu , but this time he is comment positive for ACM player , no need to accusing him

  2. Looking forward to getting to know Milan! I’ve been watching matches here and there the last couple years trying to decide on a club to support in Serie A.

    1. Welcome here then 🙂 You chose wisely. In the end it isn’t a choice, it has to be a feeling. Let’s hope your choice pays off this year and that you stick around and support the team for many years ahead!

  3. If Pulisic does well this year it’s going to be HUGE in the US. The amount of Chelsea/pulisic jerseys here is insane (and I live in Texas). Also the number of casuals who just say “eh I like Chelsea” because of him is major too. Of course, if he doesn’t latch on it’ll just be another “ehhh” but if he does watch out. Major revenue driver IMO.

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