Christian Pulisic, aka Wonderboy, thriving in the English Premier League
Timothy Holcombe, Staff Writer
Christian Pulisic is an American striker who is currently on a roll in the Premier League across the pond over in England. He’s a 21-year-old phenom and it was a major deal when he made his debut for the US Men’s National Team while he was still in high school.
He went to prom one night and then had to be flown out to the stadium for the game the next night, which is quite a story in itself. Since his debut, Pulisic has had highs and lows on the pitch. Highs came with his first major club, Borrusia Dortmund, a Bundesliga team in Germany. Pulisic also experienced times where he found himself relegated to the bench only to come on as a substitute towards the end of his tenure at Dortmund.
Highs and lows hit him as well with the US national team, winning the Gold Cup in 2017 over Costa Rica and drawing a match with France who went onto win the FIFA World Cup. Dark times hit the US team when they were in third place to qualify for the World Cup automatically.
A table allows the top three teams to qualify while the fourth team has to play a play in game. All they had to do was defeat Trindad and Tobago, who they dispatched at home with ease. Unfortunately, Pulisic and company fell 2-1 and fell down to fifth in the standings, failing to qualify for the first time in decades.
Pulisic and his coach received a lot of criticism for the failure. Many members of the media were blasting the team and the young phenom, saying, “where are you Wonderboy?” Pulisic just kept waiting for his time and eventually, it came. He finished out his contract obligations to Borrusia Dortmund and then signed with Premier League Chelsea.
It seemed like a new beginning, but things did not start off well. The Chelsea boss refused to start Pulisic, only using him as a sub. He asked him what he needed to do to get on the pitch as a starter and was told to, “keep training and working hard, be the first to arrive and the last to leave and strive to get better. Then may you find quality time on the pitch.”
Pulisic got to it putting in the time on and off the pitch to get his mind right. Then, on October 26th he was named a starter for the match against Burnley, a match that may have changed young Christian Pulisic’s life forever.
He had a hat trick of goals leading Chelsea to the 4-2 victory. Since that start, he has six goals in total as a starter and has Chelsea currently in 4th place, out of 20 teams, in the Premier League. While they may not win the league as they are 14 points behind first place Liverpool, they still have a formidable attack up front with Tammy Abraham and now Christian Pulisic.
Look out for Chelsea in years to come. As for Pulisic, it’s a great start with his new team and hopefully he will be able to bring some this success back with him when the US National Team starts their run to qualify for the World Cup 2022.
