🇮🇹 American Dream meets Italian Job as Pulisic debut offers Milan hope | OneFootball

In a busy summer for Milan, it would almost have been easy to forget about their acquisition of one of the most talented players the USA has ever produced.

Christian Pulisic wasn’t their first major arrival of the window, nor was he a recent signing.

Old Chelsea team-mate Ruben Loftus-Cheek and exciting Lazio starlet Luka Romero came in before Pulisic to get things going and following his mid-July arrival came a spate of exciting additions in Tijjani Reijnders, Noah Okafor, Samuel Chukwueze and compatriot Yunus Musah.

But at his best, the 24-year-old is arguably the most talented and biggest game-changer of all the new additions.

After a difficult recent time of it at Chelsea, Milan already looks to be the perfect environment to get the best out of him just as Dortmund did: a global powerhouse with a passionate fanbase who, as supporters did at the Westfalenstadion, have already taken him to their hearts.

According to the Athletic, of all club jerseys sold since he joined this summer, almost 50% of them have been adorned Pulisic’s name and the number 11.

It isn’t hard to see why he’s such a hit so soon after his glittering performance on his competitive debut away to Bologna on Monday night.

He was outstanding in the opening 45 minutes and became the first American to net on his Serie A debut with his early wonder goal, effortlessly firing home from 25 yards to put the Rossoneri 2-0 ahead for a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

It was also his nimble footwork and deep dangerous cross that led to the opener too, with the ball then being fed back across goal for Olivier Giroud to pounce.

“After I played the one-two with Olivier, all I could do was shoot,” he shrugged modestly when speaking to Milan TV about his superb strike afterwards. “It was a perfect shot and gave me great emotion. It was a perfect night.”

If pre-season was anything to go by, Monday’s performance shouldn’t be too surprising. Pulisic shone on home turf during Milan’s summer tour of the United States and, while it is of course early days, he appears to have a renewed lease of life and spring in his step after being freed from the shackles of the recent turmoil at Chelsea.

At the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, he performed as he did in last month’s friendly fixtures, shimmering on the right of Stefano Pioli’s 4-3-3, adding a vibrancy to that position that the likes of Junior Messias and Alexis Saelaemakers have failed to provide of late and potentially proving the perfect foil for Rafael Leão on the opposite flank.

“I think having players like that is important and I already knew that Christian was a big talent that’s why I tried to convince him to join during our phone calls,” the Milan coach told the assembled media afterwards before ensuring that the new man doesn’t get too carried away.

“But it is wrong to talk about individual players. This year we have more solutions in the offensive phase and I’m happy about that.”

Pioli will be even happier if this truly is the beginning of the Pulisic revival.